“ …. but courteously”. Fat lot of good being courteous to the type of left-wing yobs who demonise Cook will do you. Cook was an explorer, a top grade seaman, navigator; that's it. It is an insult to the man to mention ignorant haters in the one article. An article on zoology would be appropriate for them.

"demonising James Cook, accusing him of being the originator of every social and economic problem that Indigenous Australians have faced,." The originator of every social and economic problem the Endeavour faced — the ship was never the same after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. It's final problem came from Britain.

In 1778 during the Revolutionary War and a year before Cook's own death, it was sunk by the British who were blockading Newport to prevent the French from taking the city. An Aboriginal woman may lead a memorial service for this beloved driftwood.

why not demonise Cook. Imagine if the Indigeneous culture was honestly looked at. We see today child abuse, neglect, thieving etc etc. An honest look at Indigeneous culture reveals many uncomfortable truths. Much easier to exaggerate and demonise those who built schools, roads, hospitals and brought some sort of modern civilisation to this country.

So was an invasion from outside inevitable ? Could Australia, New Zealand and most of the Pacific islands have been left alone forever ? Even in 2018 ? 'We' beat the French by a couple of weeks; the Spanish by a few years; probably - once they realised the nature of the south-east corner of Australia, the Dutch; the Americans (don't kid yourself); all those guns currently pointing out to sea against the threatened Russian invasion of the 1860s; just a few years later, the Japanese; the Germans. Currently, does anybody believe that the Chinese (and/or Indians) would leave Australia alone, 'inviolate' from outside interference ?

So let's be honest for once: invasion was inevitable.

So, next question: on balance, was it beneficial ? Would Aboriginal people be better off going out hunting and fishing and gathering every day, as they had done for sixty thousand years ? Are there any Aboriginal people now, today, who honestly would prefer to be doing that ?

Truth and reconciliation requires the honesty and courage to face up to these realities. Can we do it ? I have only faint hopes.

Joe

It was Possession Island, off the tip of Cape York, just before sunset on Wednesday 22nd August 1770, where British navigator Lieut. James Cook came ashore and took possession of the east coast of Australia for the King of England, His Majesty King George III as a joint endeavour .

"Joint endeavour" is from the American term joint for a place, a bar or club, and then where criminals gathered, a term for prison.

"Case" . The experts point to the gambling game called faro . A case-keeper was a device which kept a record of the play, this sense of case as a noun evolved into the verb to case, to watch or inspect. To "case the joint" is first recorded in a police report:

No one would suspect that the well-dressed young man who had made a purchase just at closing time prior to the burglary was “casing the joint”.

Leave it where it has lain undisturbed for centuries. And instead, direct the millions this project would cost to some other far more worthwhile endeavour Say housing/hospital or school that could be a dedication to reconciliation and reunion.

No matter what one says or does, one can't change the past. However, a completely different story for the future! And where our current focus ought to be! Treaty and a bill of irrevocable rights!
Alan B.

Glebe Park in Canberra is next to the casino and is ideal for a monument such as a concrete pillar which can be sprayed by bullets to resemble small-pox.

USA. "there is no doubt that British military authorities approved of attempts to spread smallpox among the enemy", and "it was deliberate British policy to infect the Indians with smallpox". On 24 June 1763, William Trent, a local trader and commander of the Fort Pitt militia, wrote, "Out of our regard for them, we gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect."

"According to a theory put forward in Journal of Australian Studies (JAS) by an independent researcher, in 1789, British marines used smallpox against indigenous tribes in New South Wales. Prior to the JAS article this theory was disputed by some academics , it is now known that the likely source was bottles of smallpox virus possessed by First Fleet surgeons and there actually was a report of smallpox amongst the colonists – a seaman, Jefferies."

Nicknamenick AKA Alan B

A minor point. I think the traditional spelling is the Barque Endeavor.
Cook, no doubt at all, was one of the premier navigators of history.
He is up there with the Polynesians, Magellan, Columbus, Tasman and
a very few others.
Many put the Vikings in that class but they were coastal crawlers.
By Cooks time there had been improvements in longitude determination.
That most of his charting is still valid says everything about the man.

He could have handed his lovely neat lines of ink to the various land-owners he met . But there was more to be said : "It all belongs to my land-owner George" after Parliament picked a Protestant winner in Germany and gave him the lot.

Wake Up Australia

The Difference between Leftist's and Liberals.
http://youtu.be/tlIjMJBSnRE

Dispersing the natives was the leftist slogan of racist socialists such as the Hanoverian workers' commune of 1714 led by king George 1.
His peasants and sailors' navy flew the revolutionist English Red Ensign . In 1674, a Royal Proclamation of King Charles II (1630-1685, reigned 1660-1685), confirmed that the Red Ensign was the appropriate flag to be worn by English workers ships. The wording of the 1674 proclamation indicates that the flag was customarily being used by English slaves before that date.

What are you drinking Nick?

It seems to be effective.

What was a typical weekly menu for the crew? “Each man was allowed every day one pound of Biscuit as much small Beer as he can drink or a pint of Wine, or half a pint of Brandy, Rum, or arrack, they will have besides."
Excerpts from the Journals of Captain Cook’s Expeditions.

“Individuals, particularly the officers, supplemented their needs with personal provisioning; this might be Madeira brought on board for their own use. .”
—Sailors & Sauerkraut (p. 15-16).

James was rolling legless on his last night in east Australia and scrawled out a few lines for George. This was not racism , the gentry and royals were not that way at all , it was only the lower deck that had the idea that losing half a continent was what the non-British body-painters deserved.