THE GUUGU YIMITHIRR PEOPLE – FIRST CONTACT FOR AUSTRALIA

Cook spent almost seven weeks in the Endeavour River, having landed his boat on a site known as Wahalumbaal, where Cooktown now stands. During their time there, Cook and his men had a number of encounters with the local Guugu Yimithirr clans.

It is more than likely that once Cook had repaired his ship and sailed away again, that the Guugu Yimithirr would have developed a story around this unusual event. And that story would likely have been told in the form of dance, song and storytelling, known in Guugu Yimithirr as a “Malgarrii”. (There is no Guugu Yimithirr word ‘corroboree’).  By this means the Guugu Yimithirr clan members who had observed and met with Cook and his men, could have told others about what they had witnessed, what had gone on and what they understood it all to mean.

Little is known from the Guugu Yimithirr people of those times although there are stories that have been passed down and some people refer to rock art that features a great masted ship.  Luckily Cook and Banks wrote extensive journals and recorded so much from their journeys that we have information, lists of language heard spoken, plant samples and drawings and sketches of newly discovered animals like the ‘Gangaroo’.

Sir Joseph Banks went on to ensure that Sidney Parkinson’s sketches of the 180 samples of plants found in the Endeavour river area were finished and engraved as the Bank’s Florilegium, a significant record of the flora of this region and undoubtedly a mind boggling record of those extraordinary days on the banks of the Endeavour river for a crew of men who didn’t know whether they would see their homes again.

For more information, story ideas or assistance in organising a feature on anything relating to Cooktown and the environs, please contact Vanessa Gillen, PR Consultant to Cook Shire Council, on 0412 318690 or vanessagillenpr@gmail.com