The 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's contentious landing in Australia went largely unmarked Wednesday as the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of long-planned commemorative events.

A statue of Captain James Cook is cordoned off after it was defaced in Sydney's Hyde Park on Tuesday. A war of words over colonial-era statues in Australia took a further twist with calls for the addition of plaques acknowledging the nation's indigenous history after several monuments were defaced. Photo: AFP

On April 29, 1770, Captain Cook sailed the Endeavour into Botany Bay - called Kamay in the local indigenous language - an event that is increasingly being seen through the eyes of the Aboriginal Australians who were on the shore.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the anniversary represented "a merging of histories," calling Cook an "extraordinary individual."

"The day Cook and the local indigenous community at Kamay first made contact 250 years ago changed the course of our land forever," he said.

"It's a point in time from which we embarked on a shared journey which is realized in the way we live today."

Australia's government was forced to cancel events marking 250 years since Cook's landing due to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the planned A$6.5 million ($4.3 million) circumnavigation of Australia by a replica of the Endeavour.

The first contact between the British navigator and Aboriginals foreshadowed the colonization of the continent and centuries of dispossession for indigenous Australians.

During his voyage, Cook declared Australia "Terra Nullius" - or legally unoccupied land - and claimed it as British territory despite Aboriginal history stretching back more than 60,000 years.

The British later established a penal colony in New South Wales in 1788.

Gujaga Foundation chair Ray Ingrey said the indigenous Dharawal people had been working with Australia's National Museum for 18 months to showcase their ancestors' recollections of encountering Cook.

"Australian society has matured quite a lot over last 50 years since the last anniversary came around, the 200th anniversary," he told AFP.

"A lot of the messages being received by the National Museum was the broader community saying 'We've heard about Cook's side of story, or the story from the ship, and we want to hear more about the story from the shore.'"

An online exhibition features the "largely missing" stories passed down through generations of indigenous Australians of those encounters with Cook and his crew.


Newspaper headline: Virus crisis dulls Aussies’ celebrations