Four spears stolen by Captain James Cook and his crew from Camay, now known as Sydney’s Botany Bay, have been returned to their traditional owners after more than 250 years.
In 1770, during the first contact between the local Gweegal people and the crew of the Endeavor, 40 Kamay spears are recorded as having been captured by British troops. The four spears returned on Tuesday are the only ones remaining of the original 40 spears.
The spear has been held by Trinity College, Cambridge University since shortly after its arrival in Britain in 1771, and is only publicly displayed in Australia on loan from the university and displayed in museums.
After a 30-year campaign by the Gweegaru community and a formal request for its return from the La Perouse Regional Indigenous Land Council and the Gujaga Foundation, the return of the spear was officially formalized in a ceremony in Cambridge on Tuesday.
Michael Inglei, a Dharawar man from the La Perouse indigenous community, said the return of the spear was “long overdue.”
“The feelings are mixed…many of the seniors who started the campaign are no longer with us to see their hard work and effort come to fruition,” he told Wednesday’s ABC News Breakfast. told.
But Ingley said the returned spears provided an opportunity to educate and engage the broader public.
“It’s great to have our goods back, not just for our community but for the wider Australian community to witness. , we can teach you how to practice today’s culture.”
The spear will be stored in a new visitor center at Kamay’s Kernel, near where it was first captured on the day Cook and his crew landed on Kamai.
As detailed by Joseph Banks in Cook’s Endeavour’s log, the crew shot at Gweegar’s men, forcing them to retreat and then seizing their spears.
“We…we thought it would not be an unreasonable measure to take away all the spears.” [spears] Banks wrote on April 29, 1770:
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Nicholas Thomas, director of Cambridge Archeology Museum, which has kept the artifacts since the early 20th century, said the spear was the first surviving item taken from Australia by the British.
“They reflect the beginning of a history of misunderstanding and conflict,” he says.
“The Spear was pretty much the first point of contact between Europe, particularly the British, and Aboriginal Australia,” said Ray Ingley, director of the Gujaga Foundation, which leads a cultural research program within the La Perouse Indigenous community.
Trinity College principal Sally Davis said returning the spear was the right decision.
“[We’re] “We are committed to revisiting the complex legacy of the British Empire, particularly in our collections,” she said.
Co-authored with Associated Press
