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  5. arrow_forward_ios Cook’s voyage of ‘discovery’ was a ghostly visitation

Cook’s voyage of ‘discovery’ was a ghostly visitation

29 April 2020

Captain James Cook arrived in the Pacific 250 years ago, triggering British colonisation of the region.

Adjunct Associate Professor Alison Page

On a recent trip to Cape York, I was privileged to sit with Kaurareg/Gudang Yadhaykenu man Uncle Tommy Savage, on a beach in the town of Umagico.

We listened as he sang a song called Markai an Ghule (meaning “ghost ship”), composed by his ancestors when James Cook arrived at Possession Island in August 1770. A sad lilt permeated the song, an expression of the grief the Kaurareg people felt at having to hide their cultural system, while they determined what the arrival of this preternatural being and his big ship was all about.

We recorded Uncle Tommy’s song for inclusion in The Message, a film commissioned by the National Museum of Australia and opening in April to coincide with 250 years since Cook arrived.

While researching the film, I spent much of last year travelling Australia’s east coast interviewing historians, curators and traditional owners, piecing together stories from the ship and the shore. Here are the stories that have stuck with me.

  • Read the full story in The Conversation: ‘They are all dead’: for Indigenous people, Cook’s voyage of ‘discovery’ was a ghostly visitation
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