What Endeavour means for Indigenous Australians

For so long, Australians have seen Captain Cook as the bogey man of our nation’s identity. But now we finally have a chance to confront our past and bring two sides of our history together, writes Alison Page.

When I was asked to be the Indigenous representative on the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum — whose job was to circumnavigate Australia with The Endeavour replica for the 250th commemoration of Captain Cook — I was full of trepidation, if not outright fear.

Cook is, after all, the bogey man right? That man and that ship symbolise everything that has gone wrong between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

I come from both sides of that history, and I felt compelled to immerse myself in the story to settle my own doubts.

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We have looked at Cook’s voyage from one aspect, but now we have a genuine chance to add the stories of our First Nations people. I believe this circumnavigation is critical because it will be the first time we will come together as a nation to learn our true history, which has been largely untold.

The National Maritime Museum is launching "Encounters 2020" with the aim of creating dialogue, discussion and community engagement by including the dual perspectives of the 'view from the shore' as well as from the ship. Picture: David Swift

Australia is one of the few countries that doesn’t know its history because our Indigenous history has been so absent. The commemoration next year gives us a chance to address that oversight and find a genuine narrative balance between the ship and the shore.

There are some very important national conversations going about the empowerment of Indigenous people through constitutional recognition and a voice to parliament. For that to happen, the conversation should always start with the truth.

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The truth can be painful, but Australia is well and truly ready to start, and fully engage in this important conversation. Because our story is epic. It is a human story of courage, terrifying fear, mysticism, leadership and environmental activism. It is about two completely different knowledge systems trying to communicate and reconcile.

There was 18 years between Cook leaving and the First Fleet arriving. The decisions made in that time were not by Cook, but by Joseph Banks and the Monarchy; that Australia is ‘no mans’ land’ and would make a great offshore detention centre. These are some of the truths that need to be revealed next year because we need to dispel the myths about Cook and understand what really went down.

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's charting of the east coast of Australia, the National Maritime Museum is launching "Encounters 2020". Picture: David Swift

When Cook writes in his diary that Indigenous people “are far happier than we Europeans … that the earth and sea … furnishes them with all things necessary for life”, he captures what lies at the heart of what we all have to gain from understanding and engaging with Indigenous culture; an ancient and enduring legacy of traditional ecological knowledge that truly cares for the land, the sky, the sea and our people.

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I went out on the Endeavour recently, and as I stood on the front of the ship, looking back to the shore, I wondered what Australia would have been like if Cook and his men had heard the voices of Australia’s first people; if they’d appreciated the breadth and depth of traditional knowledge and engaged in a true sharing of ideas and technologies. That Australia would be a very different place.

It’s the right time to start building that vision of Australia and unite our nation.

None of us should be in fear of new discoveries, and this is a story about discovery. Not the discovery of land by England, but of all Australians discovering their true history. I believe that through this, we can truly discover ourselves.

Originally published as What Endeavour means for Indigenous Australians