Skip to main content

                    First Nations Perspectives of Cook’s Voyages and Cooks’ Cottage

                    Aboriginal people performing smoking ceremony with banner and building in background

                    ​Lisa Bellear (Minjungbul/Noonuccal/ Kanak), Black GST protestors including Wayne Thorpe and Robbie Corowa, Captain Cook’s Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne, 2006. Digitised colour photograph. Lisa Bellear Collection. Gift of John Stewart, 2012. Koorie Heritage Trust.

                    Captain Cook is a well-known figure in Australian history. Cook and his crew were forerunners of the British colonisation of Australia, and centuries of British influence in the Pacific more broadly.

                    ​For this reason, many First Nations people hold different views on Cook’s legacy, including Cooks’ Cottage in the Fitzroy Gardens, which was home to Captain Cook’s parents and relocated from England to the gardens in 1934.

                    In 2020, a number of institutions invited First Nations perspectives on Cook to mark the 250th anniversary of his first Pacific voyage. This included the Australian Museum’s 2020 Project – an exhibition project centred on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s perspectives.

                    Aligned with Future Melbourne Goal 9: a city with an Aboriginal focus, and in the spirit of truth-telling, City of Melbourne commissioned Dr Paola Balla, Dr Clare Land and Kate Golding to develop a publication that considers First Nations perspectives on Cook’s legacy and Cooks’ Cottage. 

                    Entitled BLAK COOK BOOK, the publication invites visitors to the Fitzroy Gardens and the wider public to reflect on Australia’s history in all its complexity and be open to multiple perspectives.

                    Read BLAK COOK BOOK (PDF 2.6 MB)  

                      Was this page helpful?

                      If you'd like to give more feedback or ask a question, please contact us.

                      Connect with Aboriginal Melbourne

                      Facebook