James Cook and Tupaia - What was the impact of this voyage?
Impacts in Aotearoa
Even with Tupaia’s help, misunderstandings arose between the British and Māori people. Disputes happened over trade and the British failure to observe Māori cultural protocols. Māori people responded to the unfamiliar visitors in ways shaped by their own traditions. Even though Cook was often noted for showing more restraint and cultural understanding than many of his crew, misunderstandings and difficulties in communication contributed to the deaths of several Māori leaders.
The impact on First Nations Australians
These maps and his encounters with Aboriginal people were instrumental in Britain establishing a penal colony in 1788, which led to the British colonisation of Australia and the taking over of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ homelands.
Soon after the British colonisation of Australia with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the environment changed. The First Nations people who cared for the land were expelled from their homes and the landscapes which they had carefully managed were damaged by European farming practices and the misuse of natural resources.
The continual fight to regain ancestral lands and waters and the rights and freedoms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People continues to the present day.
The impact on natural sciences
Banks and Solander, the scientists on board, were excited by the extraordinary flora and fauna (plants and animals) that they saw along Australia’s eastern coastline. They collected natural specimens including plants, reptiles, fish, shellfish and insects, many of which they had never seen before. They also sketched and made drawings and kept detailed journals of the lands they encountered. Banks and Solander catalogued over 30,000 new plant species, which increased the number of species known to Western science by 10%!
Drawing of a kangaroo
Weeping bottlebrush tree, originally sketched by Sydney Parkinson, on board HMB Endeavour
