50 spears
April 28 2020 is the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the British on the lands of the Gweagle people of Botany Bay in 1770. Throughout Australian history this occasion has been marked by non-Indigenous authored historical recreations of Captain Cooks landing that have largely caricatured the experience of Sydney’s Aboriginal people and their perception of this foundation event of modern Australian history.
Only 4 out of the 50 spears that were ‘aquired’ during Cooks encounter with the gweagle are known of today. one of these with four prongs is made from the shaft of a Xanthorrhoea stem, similar to another held at the Museum of Mankind in London and another two four pronged spears held at the Australian Museum in Sydney.
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