Chance to truly tell history of our nation
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 nonindigenous people.
I come from both sides of that history, and I felt compelled to immerse myself in the story to settle my own doubts.
Until now 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.
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.
The truth can be painful, but I believe that 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.
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.
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 all Australians discovering their true history.
I believe that through this, we can truly discover ourselves.