The Gweagal spears were taken in 1770 when the Endeavour arrived at Botany Bay in the first meeting between the British and the Indigenous Gweagal people of Kamay.
Four spears stolen by British naval lieutenant James Cook and his crew on their first contact with Australia have been returned to their community after more than 250 years.
Ray Ingrey, a Dharawal man who chairs the Gujaga Foundation said the objects are “pretty much the first point of European contact, particularly British contact with Aboriginal Australia”. “Upon examining the lances we had taken from them we found that most of them had been used in striking fish, at least we concluded so from seaweed,” Banks wrote.Lord Sandwich of the British Admiralty presented the spears to Trinity soon after Cook returned to England, and they have been part of the collection since 1771. Since 1914 the four spears have been cared for by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, along with other materials from Cook’s voyage across the Pacific.
“My old people lived in Sydney,” Ingrey said. “I have an ancient and unbroken connection to Sydney... I heard from my elders, particularly my great aunty who told us of the arrival of the Endeavour. She would talk about the conflict and also some of the artefacts and materials that were taken.” “They are the first artefacts collected by any European from any part of Australia, that remain extant and documented,” he said. “They reflect the beginnings of a history of misunderstanding and conflict. Their significance will be powerfully enhanced through return to the country.”
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