House debates

Monday, 2 December 2019

Private Members' Business

Captain Cook's Voyage to Australia: 250th Anniversary

6:17 pm

Photo of Julian LeeserJulian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has a rich history, and we are richer for knowing it in all of its colour and all of its depth. Next year, next April, we will celebrate and commemorate the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's arrival in Australia. Captain Cook was one of the most remarkable men of his era. His voyages greatly contributed to the expansion of human knowledge. Responsible for navigating and mapping, among other places, Labrador, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Hawaii, New Guinea and the east coast of Australia and Tasmania, Cook created accurate maps, later confirmed by satellite images, using what were quite unsophisticated tools. With Sir Joseph Banks, he promoted a greater understanding and knowledge of a wide variety of Australian flora and fauna.

Cook was fastidious about health and hygiene, and, on his long voyage between 1768 and 1771, he lost not a single person to scurvy. This was an amazing feat because, although scurvy had been linked to bad diet, the link between it and vitamin C had not been established until that particular voyage of Captain Cook.

Last year, along with Senator Dodson, I had the honour and privilege of chairing a committee into the constitutional recognition of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and much has been said about the recommendations we made in relation to the Voice, but perhaps less has been focused on the recommendations that we made in relation to having a richer appreciation of our history. I just want to quote again, from the foreword to that very important report, what we both said about Australia's history:

We believe there is a strong desire among all Australians to know more about the history, traditions and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their contact with other Australians both good and bad. A fuller understanding of our history including the relationship between Black and White Australia will lead to a more reconciled nation.

And that is something that all people in this House wish to see. We made recommendations about how one might go about having a greater appreciation of one's history, and I see this in my own community, where school groups and community organisations want to know more about the Indigenous people who lived and continue to live in our area.

In relation to the issue of remains, the committee made a recommendation that:

… the Australian Government consider the establishment, in Canberra, of a National Resting Place, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remains which could be a place of commemoration, healing and reflection.

I'm pleased to say that the government adopted all of the recommendations of that report, including those two recommendations.

Much has been said in this debate about the role of AIATSIS. I would like to talk about another one of Australia's great institutions and show how that institution has well and truly married the telling of the story of the Cook voyage with due respect to Indigenous people. That institution is the National Library of Australia, and I'm honoured to be the House's representative on that library's council. Last year the National Library of Australia opened the Cook and the Pacific exhibition. It opened on 22 September and ran until 10 February this year—it was timed to coincide with Cook's departure.

Cook and the Pacific told stories of exploration, contact and conflict of Europeans encountering people in the Pacific for the first time and the different ways of understanding the world. Some 80,000 people visited that exhibition, and 53 per cent of those people were from outside Canberra. That exhibit drew on the National Library's extensive collection of materials relating to Captain Cook, including manuscript No. 1, which is the World Heritage listed Cook Endeavour journals, as well as taking material from libraries in the UK, New Zealand and the United States and from other institutions in Australia.

In relation to First Nations, the exhibition content included a strong First Nations voice. The Library consulted with First Nations communities to ensure that the exhibition represented their stories in a culturally sensitive and appropriate way. Consultation with First Nations communities was a significant part of the development of the exhibition process. The curatorial team reached out to all First Nations communities represented in the exhibition in Australia and across the broader Pacific. In Australia, contact was made with the traditional custodians of the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples of Canberra, the Guugu Yimidhirr of Cooktown, the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, the Ulladulla Local Aboriginal Land Council, the Sydney Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation and the peoples of Cape York. The participation of each community varied, from minimal to highly engaged and involved, but the feedback that the Library received from those First Nations communities was that this was an incredibly successful process. Indeed, the Library, which had already developed a very strong reputation for engagement with First Nations people, further developed its connections and ways of engaging with people. I think what the Library did in the Cook and the Pacific exhibition shows what can be done with our cultural institutions telling a richer story of Australia's history. (Time expired)

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