Indigenous Australian spears taken by James Cook to return to Sydney after 250 years

Three of four remaining Kamay spears, stolen from Gweagal men, to be displayed at Chau Chak Wing Museum for three months

Rafqa Touma
Mon 4 Apr 2022 03.13 EDT

Three Indigenous spears taken by James Cook will be returned to Sydney for the first time in 250 years.

The spears, described as “exceptionally significant”, have been loaned by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge for display at the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum for three months from Friday.

Cook first landed in Australia in 1770, upon Kamay land. There, his Endeavour crew was resisted by Gweagal men from the clan of Dharawal nation, traditional owners of the southern area of what is now called Botany Bay.

The Gweagal men were shot at, withdrew, and 40 of their spears were stolen, as recounted in the journals of Cook’s Endeavour voyagers. “We … thought it no improper measure to take away with us all the lances [spears] which we could find about the houses, amounting in number to forty or fifty,” Joseph Banks wrote on 29 April 1770.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/04/exceptionally-significant-indigenous-australian-spears-to-return-to-sydney-after-250-years