Re-enacting historic day 250 years on
THE 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s arrival in Cape York lost none of its significance despite border closures and coronavirus restrictions turning a planned festival commemoration into a rather more intimate affair.
The Cooktown Re-enactment Association marked the anniversary yesterday with a re-creation of the explorer’s arrival at the Endeavour River and his first meeting with traditional owners of the Guugu Yimithirr people.
Society president Loretta Sullivan said the script for the annual event had been revised more than 10 years ago to give indigenous participants a voice.
“We have interpreted the story so their story is being told,” Ms Sullivan said.
“It was fabulous.”
The small event was limited to 20 people in line with social distancing rules.
Berta Hornsby, a Buldun woman of the Guugu Yimithirr people, said the journals of
Captain Cook and Joseph Banks had allowed her generation to reconnect with the history of their people.
“We all read the journals and realised that Cook was presenting us with the story of our ancestors and what they thought of Captain Cook,” Ms Hornsby said.
“They were very conscious of their laws and applying their laws to the land.
“In school we did not learn this.
“We were shadows in our own history.
“We have been able to look beyond that shadow.
“You get used to being called a black fella and terms that are denigrating.”
She said the re-enactment as revised in collaboration with the Guugu Yimithirr showed the traditional owners as members of a sophisticated society.
“These were not people that were complete nomads, they were actually following and applying their own laws and beliefs; they had protocols and processes,” she said.
The re-enactment was originally planned to occur in the middle of the 2020 Cooktown Expo; an event that was put on ice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The expo has been rescheduled for June 11-20, 2021 with a focus on reconciliation, regeneration and economic recovery.
“To better reflect the new focus, we have renamed the event Cooktown and Cape York Expo 2021 – The Rising Tide,” Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott said.
“It is also reflective of the need for the community to rise up and prosper in a post-pandemic world.”