Cook Collection - Hawaii - 1778-1779

Brief description

The artefacts in the Australian Museum's Cook collection attributed to Hawaii include a feathered cloak, 4 feathered circlet ornaments, a foundation mat for a feather cloak, a woven cane helmet, a nose whistle, a shark's tooth ring, 3 miniature bone carved turtles, a shark's tooth knife and more than 20 cut pieces of barkcloth.

Full description

Captain Cook first visited the Hawaiian Islands on January 18, 1778 on his third voyage, and his ships spent three months there, mostly anchored off Kauai and Hawaii. Cook considered them his most important discovery for England, and named the group the Sandwich Islands after his patron Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. The objects acquired reflect the fact that the Hawaiians initially treated Cook as a god and presented him with high status goods such as feathered capes, hats, ornaments and images. As this was a point of first contact between Europeans and Hawaiians, a thriving trade developed, and a large number of artefacts, mostly those that were carried or worn, were brought back to England. Hawaiian collections from Cook's voyages show in particular the extent and variation of Hawaiian featherwork at the time. Cook's ships returned to Hawaii nearly a year later after exploring the northwest coast of America, Alaska and Northeast Asia. They spent a few weeks without incident and departed only to return due to a problem with the ship. On February 14, 1779, Cook was killed on Hawaii due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. The artefacts in the Australian Museum's Cook collection attributed to Hawaii include a feathered cloak, 4 feathered circlet ornaments, a foundation mat for a feather cloak, a woven cane helmet, a nose whistle, a shark's tooth ring, 3 miniature bone carved turtles, a shark's tooth knife and more than 20 cut pieces of barkcloth.