Always Was Always Will Be - Tumblr Posts
"Your family are the biggest thieves in Port Victory" hits like a fucking freight train actually
reminder that many of the artefacts stolen by cook and his crew from Indigenous people of Aotearoa and Australia remain in British hands and have not even been returned to the colonial governments of those countries let alone their original possessors.
the most famous example is the so-called Gweagal shield, taken from a member of the Gweagal clan of the Dharawal Nation during Cook's original landing, alongside several spears. Rodney Kelly, a Gweagal activist, began campaigning for the shield's return to Australia; according to oral histories, Kelly is the descendant of the shield's original bearer, Cooman, who was shot by Cook. the British Museum does not acknowledge these oral histories and considers the question of the shield's ownership to be unresolved.
the spears belonging to Cooman and his compatriot were taken by another member of Cook's crew, and were in the possession of Cambridge University for centuries before being repatriated to Australia and returned to Indigenous ownership in 2023.
a 2016 investigation of the shield concluded it was not the one taken by Cook at his landing - the original shield is now believed to have been lost. this shield, is made of red mangrove wood only found hundreds of kilometres north of Cook's landing site, is now believed to be an artefact of the Guugu Yimithirr people. Kelly and other activists continue to campaign for its restoration as a symbol of Indigenous Australians.
I know I said I'd only be archiving fanart on this account, but I finished this original piece today and I'm really quite proud of it.
'26.01.22'
based off this image.