Transcript

So, I'm going to tell you a very special story about the arrival of a ship called the Endeavour. A long time ago in 1770 there was a captain named James Cook and he sailed all the way around the Pacific you know exploring islands and that.

Then one day he decided to turn west and leave New Zealand and he came right across here, right across the ocean. We call the ocean gaduu. And he found a place. Point Hicks he named it, down in Victoria. And as he turned north he started to sail all the way along the coastline. And all away along the coastline he kept seeing columns of smoke going into the air. Now we call columns of smoke bundamirri. So, he's seen lots of bundamirri as he came up the coastline. He saw water spouts all the way along the coast as well, really big ones. And as he came along the coast, when he got to about here, the Gweagal people of the Dharawal nation saw these sails in the far distance but we thought they were low-lying clouds. So, you see those clouds out there? We thought they were low-lying clouds just above the water line. We call clouds Garoo. And in our culture when we see low-lying clouds or low-lying fog, we believe there’s spirits inside of them. Spirits who are coming back to visit us. But then as the ship got to about where, we are now we thought it was a floating island. In our language we call islands barranga. And that's why today we call ships barranga as well. So, we might go for a walk so I can tell you about what the Aboriginal people saw as the ship came into Kamay Botany Bay. We thought they was possums.

This is another very special spot because as the Endeavour turned and came in there to Kamay Botany Bay, our people had a very good look at the vessel as it was coming past, and we've seen people on the decks doing things but we also seen some of the sailors go up and down the mast and we actually thought they was possums. And we call possums in our language Gurruraa. And then the vessel moved, on further on to the bay, before it anchored. So, what we're going to do now we're going to go to a very special place. The place we're going to go to is where the crew on board that vessel got their water for the first time in Australia.

What is that?

What is what?

That?

That is a little creek I think.

A little creek. That’s right. And we call creeks or rivers dharagan.

Dharagan

And this place is so special because this is where lieutenant James Cook who was also known as Captain James Cook and his crew, first got their water here in Australia. And we call freshwater najoong.

Najoong?

Yeah najoong.

What that water?

Oh, that's salt water. We call that pallinjoong.

Pallinjoong

It's a very special little place as you can see.

Uhuh.

What we're going to do now, we're going to go to our last spot.

OK

And it's a very special spot as well. You see our history is very rare history isn't it?

Uhuh.

We are in a very rare place.

Now this is the last spot I'd like to speak to you about Heath. This is where Lieutenant James Cook and his crew landed way back in 1770. So, you see that monument just there behind us?

Yes.

That is there because this is where James Cook and his crew landed in Australia for the very first time. The very first time that the British people actually came to this continent and actually set foot here.

So as their boat came in here, their ship the barranga, and they anchored just out here. They jumped in their longboats and they rode the boats into this spot here where they actually landed. They saw Aboriginal people on the shore here and when they landed they walked up across the beach here. We call a beach a marrang. And they tried to befriend the Aboriginal people by giving them gifts like beads and other things. But the Aboriginal people weren’t interested in the beads and the other gifts, all they wanted was Lieutenant James Cook and his crew to get back on their boat and go away.

Two Aboriginal warriors came from these directions here and they tried to stop him from walking any further from this landing place here. And they threw garrabangs at them. So garrabangs are stones and rocks. The Aboriginal people were singing out warrawarrawa. That means you are all dead. They thought they were spirits. We call spirits guunj in our language.

But the crew needed water as well, so what they actually did is they fired their muskets at the two warriors and they hit one warrior in the leg. He went back to his hut, or ganyah we call it, he grabbed the shield and he came back. He thought that would stop the actual bullets from the musket from affecting him. But it still didn't work, so the Aboriginal men retreated back into the bush. And not long after that another 10 Aboriginal people came out of the bushes and on this beach, there was canoes and they grabbed their canoes and they took him back up into the bush.

After all that happened Lieutenant James Cook and his crew then went and got water from that little spot we just visited a moment ago. They collected it in big barrels and then eight days later they left Kamay Botany Bay and they turned north again and they headed up the Australian East Coast.

That's a good story?

Yes.

You think it was an interesting story because I really enjoyed this this story and I enjoyed actually teaching you. It's very important that Aboriginal people, like myself teach everybody about the other side of the story and that's the Aboriginal side of the story. So, I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to teaching you again sometime. So, in here we've got shellfish. Look at that, lots of shellfish there you can eat.

End of transcript.