Audio on demand
Captain James Cook series
Events and exhibitions held at the National Museum of Australia exploring objects and collections linked to Captain James Cook and research into his Pacific voyages.
Encounters with wondrous things: the historical significance of the Cook-Forster Collection
Professor Paul Turnbull, Griffith University
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
The historical significance of the Cook-Forster ethnographic collection of the University of Göttingen in Germany is examined by historian Paul Turnbull.
Discovering Cook: Georg Forster and the image of Captain Cook
Nigel Erskine, Australian National Maritime Museum
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
Curator Nigel Erskine discusses the official account of Captain James Cook’s third Pacific voyage, particularly the introductory essay by German naturalist and fellow voyager Georg Forster.
To attempt some new discoveries in that vast unknown tract
Professor Adrienne Kaeppler, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, United States
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
Anthropologist Adrienne Kaeppler outlines the research that has gone into reconstructing the ethnographic collections from Captain James Cook’s three Pacific voyages.
Looking across the beach – both ways
Professor Greg Dening, Australian National University
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
Historian Greg Dening examines the cultural achievements of the Sea of Islands or Pacific peoples with a particular focus on Tupaia, a priest of Oro, who joined Captain James Cook on the Endeavour.
Footprints in the sand: Banks’ Maori collection, Cook’s first voyage 1768-1771
Paul Tapsell, Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
Historian Paul Tapsell discusses how artefacts in Joseph Banks’ collection from Captain James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific can be viewed as ‘taonga’, or Maori treasured possessions.
Cook, his mission and Indigenous Australia: a perspective on consequence
Doreen Mellor, National Library of Australia
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
Curator Doreen Mellor examines the life-changing consequences for Australian Indigenous peoples of Captain James Cook’s first Pacific journey, and subsequent European settlement, as the background to the story of the Stolen Generations.
Brushed with fame: museological investments in the Cook voyage collections
Lissant Bolton, British Museum, United Kingdom
Captain James Cook series, 28 July 2006
Historian Lissant Bolton considers the nature of Captain James Cook’s fame in a museological context and discusses how difficult it is to present artefacts from the Pacific in an exhibition without reference to Cook’s three voyages.