Cooking the Books: Contested Colonial Commemorations in Australia

Abstract

Controversy around the celebration of Captain Cook as a founding father of the Australian nation is not new, but dates back to the nineteenth century when his first statues were raised. The latest plans made by Australia’s government to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his so-called discovery of the continent has sparked renewed controversy which is linked to global debates about the contemporary value and meaning of civic statues to heroes associated with Indigenous dispossession, colonialism and slavery.