Captain Cook

Captain Cook Scene and Diorama by Emily Thomas
'An alternative Beginning' (2009/2019)

Dimensions: 
Diorama: 217 x 305 x 50mm
Scene: 130 x 210 x 3mm

As 2019 marks the 250th year since HMS Endeavour reached the shores of Aotearoa, Captain Cook's legacy has been engulfed in a storm of questioning. Was he valiant or villainous? To be admired or abhorred? Or perhaps both? He has been glorified and demonised into conflicting caricatures over time. Colonisation personified. Where in the middle is his humanity found?

History surrounding the first encounters is no longer static, no longer black & white, no longer interpreted through a myopic telescope lens. Enriching layers of perspective are being pasted into the scrapbook of his travels; scales of significance shifted, embellishments added and subtracted.

Is it fair to place on Cook's shoulders the weight of the colonial atrocities that followed his
explorations? Was he the sharp edge of the toki, enabling the wedge of imperialism that drove in behind? Is he responsible for the social and environmental destruction left in his wake? As the tides turn on Captain Cook's legend, these tumultuous times beg questions of ourselves. Are we in fact pirates plundering the future? Colonising the atmosphere? Or are we just people of our time caught in a cultural and economic system, future hostages of history?

Note: In his journals, Cook coined the term “tattoo” as a simile to the Tahitian word “tatau” for body markings in ink. Cook also observed that the sound of the tapping of the needles during the marking process resembled the sound of military drums. Although there is evidence of a continued history of tattooing in Europe since ancient times, modern tattoo popularity can be largely attributed to the publication of Cook's travel tales.