Cooktown & Cape York Expo 2021 is a ten day regional expo and a festival of celebration, Reconciliation and a catalyst for regional economic renewal, highlighting Far North Queensland and Cape York’s unique history, culture, tourism offerings, visual art, performing arts, agriculture, indigenous and non-indigenous business.
Cook Shire has been planning a festival for a number of years with the knowledge that 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s voyage throughout the east coast of Australia. Lt James Cook spent seven weeks in Waymburr, now known as Cooktown, after the HM Bark Endeavour ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. The 2020 Expo was to celebrate Cooktown as one of the few places in Australia with an historical site of significance to the shared history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, its natural setting still intact and recognisable after 250 years, where both cultures can gather together, and without debating Indigenous authenticity.
When the Covid-19 Pandemic was announced and the world took on self-isolation and ordered the closure of theatres, festivals, concerts and other ‘mass gathering’s, Cook Shire had little choice other than to postpone the event until 2021.
The 2021 event will continue the 2020 theme, built around the first recorded act of reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians in 1770, focusing on our important historical heritage of a shared history over the last 250 years.