Mount Kuring-Gai school’s ‘fake history’ play about Captain Cook cancelled

A school play given to young Sydney primary schoolers which included false claims about famous explorer Captain James Cook has now been dumped.

A SYDNEY school has been forced to suspend production of a “fake history” play that wrongfully claimed Captain Cook landed in Australia in 1788 with the First Fleet as a “coloniser” – when in fact the explorer was long dead by then.

Parents had complained to One Nation MP Mark Latham about the “woke” rewriting of history, which was being taught to Year 2 children at Mount Kuring-Gai Public School, in Sydney’s north.

Late yesterday the Minister announced that “Mount Kuring-gai Public School immediately stopped production of the play after concerns were raised.”

The children had been given an adapted script of the “Somebody’s Land” book, written by former footballer Adam Goodes and Ellie Lang, which starts off by stating it is set in 1788 and “reflects the colonisation of Australia”.

Stage directions state: “The colonisers and Captain Cook are standing still in the boat with their hands on their hips looking down on the Indigenous Peoples.”

Captain James Cook had died by the time of Australia’s settlement.

Script handed out to Year 2 students at Mount Kuring-Gai Public School which includes Captain Cook as a coloniser in 1788. MP Mark Latham has called it "fake history".

A character playing Captain Cook states: “I see no owners of the land. I think I’ll take it for myself”.

Captain James Cook conducted a voyage of discovery of Australia in 1770 and died in 1779. He was not involved in the 1788 settlement of Australia by Captain Arthur Phillip, New South Wales’ first governor.

The play also required all children to recite that they “live, learn and play on this stolen and unceded land”.

Mr Latham questioned NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell about the “rewriting” of history and slammed the primary school teacher’s “appalling” lack of knowledge about Australia’s history.

“This attempt to demonise Captain Cook is plain wrong and pathetic,” he said.

Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell has been quizzed about the play by One Nation MP Mark Latham. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“It’s historically wrong and inaccurate to fit him up as being part of the 1788 settlement of the country.

“The play contains statements about stolen land. It’s appalling that this historical inaccuracy is pushed on these kids - it’s a fake history play.”

“If you don’t know our history what are you doing in a school teaching any of it?” he said.

“This is not some obscure thing about settlement, it’s one of the most basic elements of Australian history.”

Dr Bella d’Abrera, director of the IPA think tank’s Foundations of Western Civilisation program, said what was fed to the children was “a work of fiction”.

Foundations of Western Civilisation Director Bella d’Abrera. Picture: Supplied

“For all the emphasis that the progressive left put on ‘truth telling’, it is remarkable how little truth there is in the false narrative being fed to Australian children about Captain Cook,” she said.

“The simple fact is that Captain Cook was not a coloniser, he was not even an advocate of colonisation.

“Before he embarked on his first voyage in 1768, Cook was given a secret set of instructions to establish once and for all if our continent, the ‘Unknown Southern Land’, actually existed.”