Published 3 December 2019
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‘On the afternoon of first contact Cook’s crew shot two Gwaegal men who opposed them from the shore. Cook observed, correctly, “all they seem’d to want was for us to be gone“.’
In the December issue of Meanjin Paul Daley takes a long look at the complex legacy of James Cook. In a timely essay ahead of the Cook sestercentennial in 2020, Daley digs deep into the many and conflicting strands of this Australian colonial foundation story. Was Cook a blameless master navigator? Or should he be connected intimately to the dispossession of First Nations peoples that followed his voyage of 1770?
Also in this issue, writing from: Gabrielle Chan, Bri Lee, Greg Jericho, Tony Birch, Gregory Day, Robbie Arnott, Ruby Hamad, Mesh Tennakoon, Carmel Bird, Oliver Mestitz, Emma Marie Jones, Belinda Rule, Anthony Lawrence, Geoff Page, Jaya Savige and more.
Meanjin Papers
ON COOK
Paul Daley
Up Front
NATIONAL ACCOUNTS
Na’ama Carlin
SEX, VAGINISMUS AND REALITY TV
Madison Griffiths
THE STUDY OF FORM, THE NAMING OF THINGS
Alex Gerrans
JOAN SUTHERLAND
Margaret Barbalet
ONE FINE DAY
Dani Netherclift
TRAUMA TESTAMENTS AND CREATIVE VERTIGO
Amal Awad
THE FORGETTORY
Tracy Crisp
Essays
AUSTRALIA IN THREE (CRIME) BOOKS
Lucy Sussex
LOSING THE FARM
Gabrielle Chan
SACRED COW
Richard Anderson
A FINGER LAID UPON THE LIPS
Elisabeth Hanscombe
HOW WE KEEP OUR PENS MIGHTY
Bri Lee
LIFE ON THE EDGE
Sinead Roarty
THE TROUBLE WITH JOURNALISM
Greg Jericho
WALKING AND BEING
Tony Birch
HOLA WANI: COURTING BEES IN A DIVIDED LAND
Lisa Palmer
THE WRITER ON THE HILL
Matthew Clayfield
COLOURING THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Divya Venkataraman
NINA CHRISTESEN AND I
Helen Cerne
COMMUNISTS AND COMIC BOOKS
Jeff Sparrow
Memoir
OTWAY TAENARUM
Gregory Day
WE COME FROM THE SEA
Maja Amanita
BIRDS AND KNIVES
Robbie Arnott
THE WEIGHT OF GRIEF
Gemma Carey
CHIMPANZEES AND PIGS AND FISH AND LEMONS
Christie Nieman
UNTETHERED
Irma Gold
Fiction
KATTADIYA
Mesh Tennakoon
THE CARETAKER’S DAUGHTER’S DOG
Carmel Bird
PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN MACADAMIA
Oliver Mestitz
THE RIGHT THING
Emma Marie Jones
Reviews
AN UNHAPPY SOUL
Ruby Hamad
YELLOW PERIL ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE
Jinghua Qian
BLOOD WILL HAVE BLOOD
Upulie Divisekera
