The fluttering sails were seen from a distance.
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As the landing party left the vessel, heading for the shore in their longboats, they were watched.
It was April 29, 1770 – 250 years ago.
Captain James Cook and his crew had not even landed when the first shots were fired.
Cook’s journal – held by the National Library of Australia – records that first encounter with the Gwaegal people.
“I thought that they beckon'd to us to come a shore; but in this we were mistaken, for as soon as we put the boat in they again came to oppose us upon which I fired a musket between the two which had no other effect than to make them retire back where bundles of their darts lay, and one of them took up a stone and threw at us, which caused my firing a second musket-load with small shot, and although some of the shot struck the man yet it had no other effect than to make him lay hold of a shield or target to defend himself.
“Immediately after this we landed, which we had no sooner done than they throw'd two darts at us, this obliged me to fire a third shot soon after, which they both made off.”
The oars were pulled into the boat and with a splash; the first steps on the new land were taken.
Momentous steps. Steps that would herald a coming clash of cultures.
Steps that would change the land and its inhabitants forever.
Steps that would lead to dispossession, decimation of communities and indeed whole nations.
Steps that would ultimately bring disease, heartache, despair and lead to the Stolen Generations.
Steps that signalled a violent beginning – a beginning represented by a shield, still held by the British Museum.
The shield, collected during this first encounter bears an obvious hole.
Botanist Joseph Banks, who accompanied Cook on his voyage, later wrote in his journal that “. . . a man who attempted to oppose our landing came down to the beach with a shield made of the bark of a tree. This he left behind when he ran away, and we found upon taking it up that it plainly had been pierced through with a single pointed lance near the centre.”
The divide in how the coming of Captain Cook is viewed is underscored by the differences in belief about the cause of the hole. Aboriginal Australians have long insisted – with apparent good reason – that the hole is the obvious result of musket shot.
The BBC's History of the World in 100 Objects online exhibition has described the shield as “symbolically charged, freighted with layers of history, legend, global politics, and race relations”.
For many of us who have grown up learning about Cook’s momentous three-year voyage aboard His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour, the achievements were a part of the western world’s age of exploration – an age that heralded new exciting knowledge about previously unknown lands, people and flora and fauna.
Cook’s achievements as a mariner and cartographer are extraordinary.
He was the first to circumnavigate and map the coastline of New Zealand and much of the eastern coast of Australia.
But there is another story – a story told and passed down through generations; stories that describe the events of the time.
Back in 2016, Mark Wilson, an archivist from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, had been cross-referencing the institute’s oral histories relating to the events of that day in 1770 against the writings of those on HMB Endeavour - including Cook and Banks – and the stories are remarkably similar.
According to a contemporary written account based on oral histories of the events, the Gweagal people were camped in huts around Kamay (Botany Bay) when HMB Endeavour sailed in and dropped anchor.
Growing up, Ray Ingrey heard stories from his Dharawal Elders of the arrival of Cook.
“They saw the sails of the Endeavour and they thought they were low-lying clouds, and in Dharawal culture, low-lying clouds tell you that the spirits of the dead are coming back to this land, so they thought they were spirits coming back,” Mr Ingrey said.
“When they got closer they thought they were possums going up the mast … and as it got closer and closer they realised that they were actually humans. But because they were white, they thought they were spirits of the dead.”
As Mr Ingrey explained: "They were just trying to protect country in a spiritual way, because the Endeavour crew wasn't abiding by cultural protocols, which means you have to get permission to come on first".
These oral stories also corroborate Cook’s description of the shots fired and spears and a shield left on the beach.
This shield, now part of the History of the World in 100 Objects exhibition, is a lasting statement of the Gwaegal man who confronted his first Europeans on the shore at Botany Bay 250 years ago.
The recent work by historians has changed the narrative of Cook’s landing and now allows us to view the events from an Aboriginal perspective, to consider the impact of this first contact on Australia’s original inhabitants and the repercussions of this that are still felt today.
The editorial in The Age on April 29 reflected on the importance of this episode in our country’s history.
“The gaping wound of 1770 that needs to be salved this year is the legacy of dispossession of Indigenous people which began 250 years ago.
“It is hoped the year ahead, … will help build awareness that Indigenous people did not just passively accept Cook’s arrival, but tried to understand what was going on and respond in accordance with their culture.
“Telling this story together can help heal the wounds.”
It is part of our truth-telling.
● To find out more about the shield that is part of the History of the World in 100 Objects, visithttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/312knR3cR4w8FBXXYQxQqzG/episode-transcript-episode-89-australian-bark-shield
● The National Museum of Australia’s exhibition on the impact of Cook’s landing can be accessed by visiting:https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/endeavour-voyage