TWO WEEKS IN COOKTOWN

Things changed, however, when we checked the weather for our next potential beautiful Robinson Crusoe island.
Quite surprisingly, this little windy MOFO had appeared. 

We needed to find some shelter .... 

So the weather looked like it wasnt letting up for a couple of weeks. All up and down the North Queensland Coast the chart was purple (bad) and so, as is usual with sailing life -  we changed our plans.

These beautiful islands on the Great Barrier Reef may or may not provide us with shelter. When we are not familiar with an anchorage, it always pays to be super cautious and wait out the storm where we know we will be safe.
Hence we find ourselves back on the mainland, up the Endeavour River anchored off a small town in NE Queensland called Cooktown (the middle of nowhere)

What to do in Cooktown for two weeks?

Cooktown was made famous, in 1770 when Captain Cook (or Lieutenant as he was then) sought shelter after holing his boat on the reef - something we are always desparately trying not to do!  

I can't imagine navigating this reef without paper charts, navionics, Open CPN, Navily, No Foreign Land, Google earth etc etc etc ... They were so brave/a little suicidal!

And it is thanks to them, really, that we are here.... 

Cook and his crew on the good ship Endeavor, managed to do a mini repair, get the boat off the reef, and limp into Cooktown - where they spent 6 weeks getting the boat seaworthy and mingling with the locals. 

Around 100 years later, Cooktown was in the news again. Gold had been discovered just inland on the Palmar River and being on the coast, Cooktown was the crucial port.

Hundreds of thousands of people flurried into the town, not only from all over Australia, but from all over the world to make their fortune mining the gold. 

We actually found so much to do in Cooktown - loads of museums, (My husband was very happy 🤣)  indigenous art and cultural centres, amazing walks, mountains, beaches. We do bloody love Austraya... 

And as luck would have it, we happened to be here on the big weekend of the year - when the locals of Cooktown come together and perform a re-enactment of the arrival of Cook and his ship into this town.

Over the last few years, with the black lives matter protests and anti Captain Cook sentiment throughout Australia, I was interested to see how the re-enactment would be played out. I have written before about the awkwardness we feel when we arrive in countries affected by British Colonialism. (Eg Fiji/throughout the Caribbean/Vanuatu etc etc) 
Even though we weren't involved in all the blood, sweat and tears, and there is literally nothing we can do about it, its all just a bit.... mmm, not sure how to describe it, but its all just a bit awkward 😩

But the town was filling up with people, there was an amazing atmosphere - music, fun, food, dancing, displays etc. 

Locals -  both Indigenous and white Australians, and people who had travelled not only throughout Australia but from around the world to watch this annual event  - mingled in the parks/the restaurants and bars sharing the fun

Rumour has it, that when Cook arrived in Cooktown he was keen to have a peaceful connection with the locals and the re-enactment highlighted this.

Initial contact with the Guugu Yimithirr Aboriginal people of Cooktown went well with Cook and the Endeavor crew making attempts to share jewels /beads/cloths etc for which the locals were just not interested. 

When they noticed the Endeavour crew had been hunting turtles, however, the Aboriginal people became angry.  It was apparently the wrong time to hunt turtles, and obviously, turtles were their food resource. 

Tensions escalated briefly and weapons were fired although no fatalities. 

Reconciliation followed soon afterwards, however, with the two groups meeting peacefully, communicating in different ways their willingness to make peace.

It is thought a Guugu Yimithirr elder presented Cook with a broken tipped spear, which is a gesture of reconciliation and means "no bloodshed" 

There is now a place in Cooktown called reconciliation rocks, which is where this meeting took place. How lovely! I love a bit of peace ❤️

All this was played out in the re-enactment and the later dancing/displays etc. 

On further reading about the indigenous people in Cooktown, the traditional owners of the land, and their involvement in the re-enactment, it would seem there is mixed feeling, which reflects the national conversation in Australia and how colonial history is commemorated.

But overall, it seems the Guugu Yimithirr, for many years, have wanted to be involved and share the celebration and this abc news article highlights this. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-19/cooktown-indigenous-commemorate-captain-cook-250th-anniversary/12363526

https://press.anu.edu.au/news-events/achieving-reconciliation
https://tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au/listing/event/cooktown-discovery-festival/

In Cooktown, that weekend, the Australian Aborigines of Cooktown joined in the re-enactment, played music, danced, had fun, and overall I just thought it was a lovely atmosphere in a town with a very interesting history. 

In these two statements, Cook has summed up, back then, what I often think is true about people throughout the world who live traditional lifestyles - like the Guugu Yimithirr people of Cooktown

As we have travelled through many parts of the world where Indigenous people live traditional lives (eg Colombia, San Blas, French Polynesia, Fiji, Vanuatu etc) and as Captain Cook stated above, I have often thought the people are far happier than us lot in the so called developed world where consumer driven values abound.

Their focus is on community over competition and while I realise its not always a perfect life, these traditional values involve spending time together, making their own fun, they dont have iphones, or gaming chairs, no TV's, no going to the gym, no commuting on the M25 or sitting on the train for 3 hours a day, no anti - depressants, no HRT, no CBT, no mental health cafe's, no online dating.....

Its just a thought but all this so called "progress," we have made, in the so called "developed" world, is it making us sick.... ?? I can totally agree with Captain Cooks statement above.