Endeavour Voyage: the untold stories of Cook and the First Australians



Take a journey through this exhibition by the National Museum of Australia, where you will hear stories from the sea and the shore.
We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander custodians of the land and sea throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples please be aware this website includes images and names of deceased people.
Take a journey through this exhibition by the National Museum of Australia, where you will hear stories from the sea and the shore.
Visit the new gallery that explores the story of navigation and voyaging around Australia. From the observation of the transit of Venus, to the importance of the night sky in Torres Strait Islander navigation and voyaging – planets and stars unite the long history of all navigators around Australia.
Image: Constellation by Gail Mabo, 2014. © Gail Mabo / Licensed by Copyright Agency, 2019 ANMM Collection 00054564
This exhibition commemorates the legacy of the Endeavour botanist Daniel Solander and the first encounter between Sweden and the Pacific Region. It features fine art prints by ten leading contemporary New Zealand artists selected to bring a unique vision to this historical event and Solander’s legacy.
It will also feature Australian Indigenous scientific knowledge as a framework to explore engravings of botanical specimens collected in Australia by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander from the national maritime collection. These exquisite coloured engravings, entitled Banks Florilegium, transport the viewer from New Zealand along the Australian coastline in 1770. They were published in the early 1980s from voyage artist drawings.
“We defy: By existing; By determining our identity; By asserting our histories; our culture; our language; By telling our stories, our way; By being one of the oldest continuous living cultures in the world.”
Tina Baum, NGA Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art
From the National Gallery of Australia, Defying Empire commemorates the 50th anniversary of 1967 Referendum that recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australians for the first time. It explores the ongoing resilience of Australia’s Indigenous people since first contact, through to the historical fight for recognition and ongoing activism to the present day. The exhibition will be hosted by the Australian National Maritime Museum from 25 November 2020 to 7 February 2021.
Image: Sandra Hill, Double Standards. 2015. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 2016 with the support of Warwick Hemsley and The Hon Melissa Parke, to mark Mr Hemsley’s tenure on Council and in recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum.
Visit the Cooktown & Cape York Expo – The Rising Tide, which will be held from 11 – 20 June 2021, and will focus on ‘reconciliation, regeneration and economic recovery’, putting a spotlight on the history, adventure, culture and natural beauty of Cooktown and Cape York. The ten-day expo will kick off with the free Reconciliation Rocks music festival – featuring artists such as Busby Marou, Troy Cassar-Daley and Mau Power – followed by a week-long regional showcase and business expo, and finishing with the much-anticipated Discovery Festival weekend.
Dive into Endeavour archives at the National Library of Australia. There is a treasure trove of books, images, journals, articles, maps and much more about Captain Cook, HMB Endeavour and the story of the voyage to Australia.
Take a virtual tour of replica ship, HMB Endeavour—the vessel James Cook sailed on his first Pacific voyage. Explore each deck of the ship and learn what life was like on-board.
See this series of works that questions who really ‘discovered’ Australia while making reference to what was always here, what has been introduced and the impact it had on who was already here.
Image: Undiscovered #9. © Michael Cook, ANMM Collection 00054256, reproduced courtesy of the artist and Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane and licenced for use by the Museum