Captain Cook 1770: paving the way for British imperialism in Australia
Introduced by Melbourne socialist activist Cathy Lewis.
This coming year we can expect a series of nauseating nationalist celebrations of Captain James Cook’s supposed ‘discovery’ of the East coast of Australia. A garish new monument will be erected in Botany Bay, where Cook’s Endeavour landed in 1770, to uncritically celebrate the beginning of Britain’s brutal colonialism in Australia. Against all the flag waving, right-wing histories shoved down our throats by the government, this talk will tell the real history of Cook’s voyages. It will explain the imperialist interests that pushed the British government to fund expeditions to Australia and elsewhere. It will tell the stories of courageous Indigenous people who were both victims of and fighters against Cook and his racist worldview.
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