Different Views

Introduction

This resource will encourage students to develop their understanding of the first contact of the Aboriginal people of Kamay Botany Bay and the men aboard the HMB Endeavour in 1770.

History, English

The learning sequences contain activities suitable for Year 7 to Year 10 students in support of the history and English syllabuses. They are organised into three subject-related areas:

• Historical empathy – history and English

• Perspectives on Cook – history and English

• Contestability – history.

Perspectives

A 'perspective' is a person’s point of view, the position from which they see and understand events going on around them. Studying historical differences in perspective, and consequent conflict, can help us understand the roots of conflict in the past and offer signposts towards possible resolution of that conflict. People, groups and historians can disagree markedly about past events, their causes and effects. There are various reasons for these differences in perspectives. - ACARA

This was the first time that Aboriginal peoples along the east coast of the continent had come into contact with British people. As a result of this voyage, the British eventually returned to the east coast of Australia, having chosen Botany Bay as the site for the establishment of a penal colony, despite the evidence contained in the Endeavour journals that the Aboriginal Australians along the east coast had customary laws, settlements and a sustainable way of life.

Quite often we are presented with the European perspective of events as there we can access written and recorded evidence of these events. Aboriginal perspectives are less familiar, partly as a result of the oral nature of their records . Nonetheless, both perspectives are of equal importance.

Note to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – images of Aboriginal people who may now be deceased may be shown in this resource.

Endeavour

The sailing ship HMB Endeavour completed a voyage through the Pacific from England between 1768 and 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages led by James Cook. The aims of the first voyage were to observe the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun in 1769 and then to search for the 'southern land' that was thought to exist.

After journeying to Tahiti to observe the transit, then making an unsuccessful attempt to find the unknown southern continent before circumnavigating and charting (mapping) both islands of New Zealand, the Endeavour sailed across to the east coast of what we now call Australia, but in 1770 was referred to as New Holland. At the time, the east coast had not yet been mapped.

29 April 1770

On the morning of 29 April 1770 the Endeavour waited off the heads of a bay, later named Botany Bay. By mid-afternoon the Endeavour had entered the bay and had been anchored off the southern shore. We now refer to the bay as Kamay Botany Bay in honour of its name prior to the arrival of the Endeavour—Kamay.