As far as history education and history awareness goes, how much do material artifacts (or more accurately, reproduction of such) and the symbolism with such objects matter to disseminating such education and awareness to the general public? If so, what are your thoughts on the ethics surrounding such artifacts as the replica HMB Endeavour? Furthermore, how should Captain James Cook be remembered in history worldwide and what role should professional historians entail in his legacy?
Last year, we had the Tuia250 Commemorations here in Aotearoa/New Zealand which commemorated 250 years since the arrival and circumnavigation of the HMB Endeavour to this archipelago. This event included the circumsnavigation of a replica HMB Endeavour around the North and South Islands following more or less the same trajectory as the HMB Endeavour, accompanied by a flotilla of a few other tall ships and waka hourua (Polynesian long distance sailing canoes). There was a great deal of support but also a great deal of backlash from a relatively smaller but vocal group of indigenous Maori activists who, accused the government funded event for whitewashing history, upholding colonial fictions and the Doctrine Discovery. I went to the Auckland staging of the Tuia250 events, which included displays of the HMB Endeavour, a flotilla of Tahitian and Maori waka hourua, exhibits dedicated to Polynesian seafaring and culture, exhibits and Tahitian dance presentations devoted to Tupaia (a Polynesian navigator who sailed with James Cook). These didn't appear to be whitewashing or fictionalization of history and there was an honest and thorough display of imagery and information relating to Cook's voyages - covering botany, the varied interactions him and his crew had with Maori (including violence and misunderstandings), painting and other material artifacts relating to the voyage. Creating an event that was less Cook-centric and Eurocentric in nature was definitely a step in the right direction for creating an 'ethical commemoration'. However, going into 2020, is it ethical for Australia to repeat such a similar commemoration? Considering that there was no sustained diplomatic interaction between the Endeavour crew and indigenous Australians, with no intermediary they had as in New Zealand and the Society Islands, I personally believe such an occasion would difficult to pull out without veering towards a Eurocentric 'discovery' narrative.
Further reading & resources for those unfamiliar with these commemorations and Cook's first voyage in general:
Tuia 250's learning resources: https://mch.govt.nz/tuia250/learn#first
Subreddit post detailing opposition to Tuia250: https://www.reddit.com/r/Maori/comments/cx7gx9/the_reckoning_cook_ethical_remembering/
Encounters 2020 - Australian Maritime Museum: https://www.sea.museum/whats-on/encounters-2020
The very [ahistorical] map of the proposed 2020-21 circumnavigation by the HMB Endeavour of Australia https://www.pm.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/anmm-endeavour-circumnavigation.pdf
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In the Australian context - which I will specifically discuss in this answer - there has, over the last couple of years, been a prominent political/social media debate on similar matters surrounding memorials to and celebrations of James Cook and the Endeavour. For context, in recent years, there's been a prominent movement to change the date of 'Australia Day', which currently celebrates the landing of the First Fleet on January 26, 1788 - e.g., there was a prominent track by an Aboriginal hip-hop group on the matter. In August 2017, newspapers reported that a statue of Captain Cook in Sydney's Hyde Park was defaced with graffiti with the slogans 'no pride in genocide' and 'change the date'. This act was condemned by conservative politicians - Scott Morrison (then the Treasurer, and now the Prime Minister) wrote on Facebook that:
Enough is enough. This is a bloody disgrace. This is an insult to all fair minded Australians who don't look back on our history with ignorance or rose coloured glasses, but also rightly acknowledge our extraordinary achievements as a nation since Lt James Cook turned up almost 250 years ago.
Morrison, it should be noted, is the local member of the Federal electorate Cook, which is named after James Cook, and takes in the southern side of Botany Bay, where the Endeavour made landfall. In the (conservative) Federal government's budget of 2018 (delivered in May 2018, 3 months before Morrison became PM), they reportedly allocated almost $50 million to celebrations of Cook and the Endeavour, including funding for the HMB Endeavour that you mention and for a monument to Cook in Morrison's electorate.
In a piece for The Conversation (a public outreach website that Australian academics commonly contribute to) about these topics, Tracy Ireland (a University of Canberra professor specialising in cultural heritage) concludes that:
Should we be devoting scarce financial resources to yet another celebration of Cook? Focal events such as these can divert funds into cultural activities and may allow researchers and creative practitioners to unearth new evidence and develop fresh interpretations. Some of these funds may also go to support initiatives driven by First Nations communities.
There is no escaping the fact that Captain Cook is a polarising national symbol, representing possession and dispossession. Another anniversary of Cook’s landing may give us much to reflect upon, but it also the highlights the need for investment in new symbols that grapple with colonial legacies and shared futures.
In a separate Conversation piece, Benjamin T. Jones, a historian at Central Queensland University, sees the government's focus on James Cook as divisive:
Cook and his treatment by public memory can be seen as the latest front in an ongoing culture war. It is a debate centred on how Australian history – especially its colonial history – should be understood. Which voices and stories should be included, and excluded, from the dominant narrative?
Jones goes on to contextualise the current debate within previous ones:
For Morrison, Cook is the embodiment of a colonial hero whose reputation has been tarnished by left-wing “activists”. He laments that “it’s very trendy to talk down James Cook and all that sort of stuff”.
Presumably “all that sort of stuff” is a gentle euphemism for dispossession and the destruction of Indigenous cultures.
Jones goes on to say that:
Few would dispute that Cook was a brilliant navigator and explorer. But there is also a question of balance. The Captain Cook Society notes that he is commemorated by more than 100 memorials, many in Australia. It is hardly a “Stalinist exercise” to suggest that Cook is already well honoured and that a more worthy project might be a new Indigenous museum.
And then finally concludes that:
Cook is no longer the national hero he once was, for the simple reason that Australians no longer see themselves as British, sharing in British achievements. More importantly, since W.E.H. Stanner’s call to end the “great Australian silence” in 1968, Australians have become more aware of the ancient cultures that possessed this land at least as far back as the Pleistocene. Retreating into the lazy “cult of forgetfulness” with a government-promoted, triumphant Cook narrative, narrows a history that has been slowly broadening for decades.
The anniversary in 2020 of Cook’s voyage can and should be marked. But without genuine consultation with First Nations peoples to find a form and language that offers respect, it will be another exercise in exclusion. If the memorials and events suggest, in former prime minster Tony Abbott’s words, that before the British arrived Australia was “barely settled”, we will know we have failed yet again.
Additionally, in April 2018, the official historian of the City of Sydney, Dr Lisa Murray, gave a Jim Kerr Lecture where she questioned whether the graffiti, some of which is on YouTube) on the Hyde Park James Cook statue should have been removed.
A Sydney Morning Herald article reported on the speech:
“[the graffiti] is not obliterating Australia’s history,” she said. “It is part of a growing public consciousness to recognise Australia’s history and to point out the complexity of our past.”