The Black Lives Matter protests have stirred up anti-Captain Cook sentiment around the country, but Indigenous people in one Queensland town say they are still committed to commemorating the 250th anniversary of their ancestors’ first encounter with the explorer.
The Cooktown Re-enactment Association puts on an annual performance depicting Cook’s landing and contact with the Guugu Yimithirr people.(Supplied: Cooktown Re-Enactment Association/Mark Privett)
James Cook arrived in what is now known as Cooktown on Cape York Peninsula in June 1770 and remained there for 48 days while repairing the Endeavour after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
The crew had generally amicable dealings with the local Guugu Yimithirr people and recorded more than 130 words of their language, including the word ‘gangurru’, from which ‘kangaroo’ is derived.
But a fight broke out when the British took 12 green turtles from the river in violation of custom, then refused to share them with traditional owners.
A Guugu Yimithirr elder prevented major bloodshed by presenting Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering.
The incident was recorded in Cook’s journal and is thought to be Australia’s first act of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
The re-enactments are performed on the banks of Waalumbaal Birri, or Endeavour River.(Supplied: Cooktown Re-Enactment Association)
The Cooktown Re-enactment Association has commemorated Cook’s 1770 landing and the actions of the ‘Little Old Man’ each year since 1959.
The performance during the town’s annual Discovery Festival usually drew huge crowds and involved a cast of about 50 people, but was scaled down to just six performers and live-streamed this week.
Cooktown’s Expo 2020 festival to mark 250 years since Cook’s arrival was postponed until next year, but the association still wanted a small event for the actual anniversary this year.
Association vice-president and Guugu Yimithirr historian Alberta Hornsby said she had dedicated herself to sharing the story to honour her ancestors and promote cross-cultural understanding.
“We just wanted to commemorate this day as something special in this town,” she said.
“We live in a place called Cooktown, we’re at the base of Mount Cook, we’ve got Cook Shire, we’ve got the Endeavour River, so it would be very remiss of us not to take this opportunity.”
Passionate local historians Loretta Sullivan and Alberta Hornsby run the Cooktown Re-enactment Association.(ABC Radio National: Gretchen Miller)
Something To Feel Proud Of
She said while some of the language in Cook’s journals “[made her] skin crawl” she appreciated having historical records about the local Indigenous people of that time.
“This Little Old Man took action in order to bring about peace so the situation wouldn’t have escalated to all-out bloodshed — how wise it that? Isn’t that something to feel proud of?” she said.
“It was a source of empowerment for me because when you grow up and you think, ‘We are nobodies, we are nothing’, but here we have a record of the good character of our people.
“You get a glimpse of the laws that are still practised today, you’ve got the language that is still practised today, and for 250 years our Guugu Yimithirr people are still here, and that’s a great achievement.”
The re-enactments have been performed since 1959 and are a marquee event in the town’s annual festival.(Supplied: Cooktown Re-Enactment Association)
She said she understood some people’s dislike of Captain Cook and what he symbolised, but personally wanted to focus on fostering peaceful co-existence in her community.
“We’re not all believers in Cook in Cooktown. We don’t all think the same. We’ve all got our own opinion,” she said.
“But I am really happy and grateful that both the community of Cooktown and the Guugu Yimithirr people and Bama (Indigenous people) from around here have allowed us to tell this story.”
The conversation that needs to be had
Harold Ludwick, a Bulgun Warra man and heritage officer at Cooktown’s James Cook Museum, said the telling of Australia’s history still greatly lacked Indigenous perspectives.
He said Cooktown’s story of reconciliation deserved more attention.
“The story of Cook and the Indigenous people in this area is something this whole nation needs to understand,” he said.
“It brought two cultures together under the banner of respect.
“There’s a lot of other things [history doesn’t say much] about the Indigenous people – their humanity where our people pointed lost sailors back to the ship.
“Banks gave someone a fish. The next day the Indigenous people were back with a bigger fish for Banks and his friends.”
Harold Ludwick says Indigenous perspectives are still lacking from Australian history.(ABC Far North: Brendan Mounter)
But Mr Ludwick said raising awareness about the friendlier encounter in Cooktown was not about denying other less palatable aspects of European settlement.
“Cook is still intrinsically tied to the colonisation of this country,” he said.
“Without him being here in 1770 there wouldn’t have been a 1788, when the genocide started, so I empathise with the people who feel that.
“People — like in Sydney where the tall ships came in — their culture was decimated, their language was annihilated.”
He said Australia’s curriculum needed to be overhauled to better reflect Indigenous people’s historical perspectives.
“All we’re doing is sweeping it under the carpet again and not having the conversation that needs to be had,” he said.
The National Museum has partnered with the ABC in an ABC iview series featuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sharing the original names of the places Captain Cook renamed on his voyage of the east coast.