Aboriginal spears are sent back to Australia after being brought to Britain by Captain Cook 250 years ago
Aboriginal spears brought to England by Captain James Cook more than 250 years ago have been repatriated to Australia.
The four coats of arms were presented at the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge University, to mark the ‘historic day’, with the three flags of Australia at the front of the room.
The permanent return of the spears to the Aboriginal community of La Perouse was agreed in March last year, following a campaign and a formal repatriation request.
However, it goes against critical scrutiny of Captain Cook’s investigative methods in the 18th century, with many divided over whether he should be remembered as a heroic explorer who ’embodied the Age of Enlightenment in which he lived’ or that he should be seen. as a symbol of colonial oppression.
(L-R)Elisabeth Bowes, Leonard Hill, Stephen Smith and Noeleen Timbery with four Aboriginal spears brought to England by Captain James Cook more than 250 years ago and now repatriated to Australia during a ceremony at Trinity College, Cambridge
The permanent return of the spears to the Aboriginal community of La Perouse was agreed in March last year, following a campaign and a formal repatriation request
When Cook landed on the coast of Kamay (Botany Bay) in 1770, his arrival was opposed by Gweagal men. Shortly afterwards, the British crew took 40 spears from a local camp, four of which were later given to Trinity College, Cambridge.
When Cook landed on the coast of Kamay (Botany Bay) in 1770, his arrival was opposed by Gweagal men, the indigenous Australian people of the area.
Shortly afterwards the British crew took forty spears from a local camp, four of which were later given to Trinity College, Cambridge.
They have been part of the college’s collection ever since and were cared for by Cambridge’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (MAA) from 1914.
Born in the Marton area of Middlesbrough, Captain Cook was the first European explorer to set foot in Australia.
He also mapped areas including New Zealand and Hawaii, where he was stabbed to death after an altercation with islanders in 1779.
However, Dame Sally Davies, the Master of the Trinity, agrees that it was the ‘right decision’ to return the spears.
She added that Trinity College was ‘committed to revisiting the complex legacies of the British Empire, not least in our collections’.
The four spears, which are all that remain of the original forty spears, are considered national treasures by the Gweagal and the tribe still uses a very similar, multi-pointed spear for fishing today.
Members of the La Perouse Aboriginal Community receive the so-called Gweagal Spears, in the presence of the Australian High Commissioner and representatives of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
They have been part of the college’s collection ever since and were cared for by Cambridge’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology from 1914
Noeleen Timbery, La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity looking at the Gweagal Spears
Ray Ingrey, from La Perouse Aboriginal community group the Gujaga Foundation, said it was a “momentous event for our community”.
He said there was “a long campaign to get the spears back, about three generations in the making.”
‘After all this time, we’re finally here. We look forward to bringing them home.”
Stephen Smith, the Australian High Commissioner to Britain, said it was “an historic day”.
He continued: “In modern times, collecting institutions are much more receptive to discussions with Indigenous communities, whether from Australia or elsewhere.
‘It is a great feature of the time I have spent in the Australian community that many collecting institutions in Britain are keen to participate in discussions about the return of artefacts or the repatriation of remains.’
Professor Nicholas Thomas, director of the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology and Trinity Fellow, said the spears were of ‘exceptional significance’ and had been ‘taken without the consent of the people’.
“Now they’re going back,” he said.
“They will mean more, their significance will be greater when they get back to Australia.”
The Gweagal Spears are on display at Trinity College Cambridge. Professor Nicholas Thomas, director of the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology and Trinity Fellow, said the spears were of ‘exceptional significance’ and had been ‘taken without the consent of the people’
The Gweagal Spears are on display at Trinity College Cambridge. Some spears were temporarily returned to Australia in 2015 and again in 2020, for the first time since they were taken by Captain Cook.
Members of the La Perouse Aboriginal Community receive the Gweagal Spears. The spears will now be displayed in a new visitors center to be built in Kurnell, Kamay
Some spears were temporarily returned to Australia in 2015 and again in 2020, for the first time since they were taken by Captain Cook.
They were on display at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, as part of two exhibitions on border encounters.
The spears will now be displayed in a new visitors center to be built in Kurnell, Kamay.
Earlier this year, the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum signed agreements for the temporary return to Ghana of 32 objects they say are ‘indelibly linked to British colonial history’.
Experts believe the deal could become a formula for transferring other disputed works, such as loaning the Elgin Marbles back to Athens.
Captain Cook’s adventures have been criticized in recent years, and statues of the explorer have been torn down in both Australia and Canada during protests against colonialism.
However, he remains highly respected among some. According to British academic Robert Tombs, Cook was “the embodiment of the Age of Enlightenment in which he lived.”