Tingika Elikana (born 5 November 1961) is a

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

civil servant, politician and

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

. He is a member of the

Cook Islands Party The Cook Islands Party is a nationalist political party in the Cook Islands. It was the first political party founded in the Cook Islands, and one of the two major parties of the islands' politics since 1965. From 1999 until 2005 it sometimes ...

Early life, education and work

Elikana was born on

Pukapuka Pukapuka, formerly Danger Island, is a coral atoll in the Northern Cook Islands, northern group of the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most remote islands of the Cook Islands, situated about northwest of Rarotonga. On th ...

and educated at Pukapuka School and Tereora College. He studied law at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and then a Masters of Business Administration at the

University of the South Pacific The University of the South Pacific (USP) is a public research university with locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. Established in 1968, the university is organised as an intergovernmental organisation and is owned by the gov ...

as well as public sector management at

Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...

. He worked as a police officer, and then as a crown prosecutor, Deputy Solicitor General, and Solicitor General. From 2011 to 2018 he was Secretary for Justice.

Political career

He was elected to the Cook Islands Parliament at the 2018 Cook Islands general election. After his election, the government charted a special flight at a cost of $32,000 to collect him from the outer islands. The flight was later the subject of a private prosecution launched against Prime Minister

Henry Puna Henry Tuakeu Puna (born 29 July 1949) is a Cook Islands politician. He most recently served as the secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum from May of 2021 to 2024. He was Prime Minister of the Cook Islands from November 2010 to October 2 ...

by former MP Norman George. As an MP, Elikana chaired the select committee which decided that homosexuality should remain a criminal offence in the Cook Islands. In February 2020 he was accused of orchestrating the sacking of six public servants who belonged to the opposition Democratic Party. Following the election of Mark Brown as Prime Minister he was appointed Associate Minister of Justice, Finance and Economic Management, Foreign Affairs and Immigration. On 22 March 2021 he was elected Deputy Speaker, replacing Tai Tura. He was re-elected at the 2022 Cook Islands general election. In February 2024 following the conviction of Cabinet Minister Robert Tapaitau for corruption he was appointed to Cabinet as

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

, Immigration, and Marine Resources. His first action in the position was to travel to Suva to co-chair the Pacific Alliance Leaders Meeting Ministerial Interim Meeting.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elikana, Tingika Living people 1961 births Victoria University of Wellington alumni University of the South Pacific alumni Massey University alumni Cook Island police officers Cook Island lawyers Cook Island civil servants Members of the Parliament of the Cook Islands Cook Islands Party politicians Ministers of foreign affairs of the Cook Islands