When Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay he faced the spears of local warriors - 250 years later the unease at his arrival has come full circle.
Rodney Kelly, an indigenous activist whose ancestor was shot by Captain Cook's crew when they landed. He says “celebrating Cook really upsets me and angers me. I don’t like the idea of the circumnavigation of Australia. It teaches people false history. I want true history to be told.”
If James Cook approached the Australian East Coast 250 years after his epic voyage, a likely first sight would be a plume of smoke around Tolywiarar, or Point Hicks, as it was named in 1770.
Back then it was the first Australian landmark observed from Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, and, similar to the raging bushfires of the last few weeks, there were reports of rising smoke sighted from far out to sea.
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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/virtual-cook-to-face-an-actually-changed-australia-20200122-p53tox
