Today, 250 years ago, the British Lieutenant, James Cook, landed with his crew in what is now known as Botany Bay, Australia, where he shot a Gweagle man, Cooman, and stole a shield, several spears and other artefacts.
These actions are the highly symbolic first events that began 250 years of ongoing colonisation and genocide of First Nations peoples across the continent.
Pictured below, Rodney Kelly, a descendent of Cooman, stares at a portrait of the Queen of England hanging in halls of Parliament House in Canberra. The photograph was taken in 2016, just prior to Rodney’s first visit to London to demand the return of the Gweagle shield and spears from the British Museum, where they were deposited by Cook on his return to England two and a half centuries ago. The museum is still refusing to return these cultural items to their rightful owners.
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