Four spears taken by Captain James Cook more than 250 years ago will soon be returned to where they came from.
When Cook and his crew first made contact with Aboriginal people in 1770, the British soldiers took dozens of spears from their camps.
More than 250 years later, four of those spears will be returned to the Gwegal people of Botany Bay, which is known as Kamay in the local Indigenous language.
The removal of spears by Captain Cook and botanist Joseph Banks was a significant and lasting loss to the local Aboriginal community, as it was a theft of their cultural knowledge handed from generation to generation.
For now, the artefacts remain at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, as part of an archaeology and anthropology collection.
But they will soon be physically returned to their rightful custodians and displayed at the new visitor centre being constructed at Botany Bay.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast – Chairperson of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council Noeleen Timbery welcomed the announcement.
She said it comes after years of negotiation and relationship-building.
