Meeting at Cooktown
Artist
Peter Hudson
Date2013
Object number00054664
NamePainting
MediumMixed media on board
DimensionsDisplay dimensions: 1580 × 850 × 50 mm
Overall: 1590 × 825 × 60 mm
Overall: 1590 × 825 × 60 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionA painting by Peter Hudson titled 'Meeting at Cooktown' depicting a fruit bat hanging over a cube with a painted landscape.
This work refers to an incident in which a young crew member of the ENDEAVOUR became terrified when he happened upon a flying fox for the first time, reporting to Cook and Bank's 'he had seen the devil'. In coming to terms with something so strange and inexplicable, the boy sought to understand it in terms of his existing experience and beliefs. Yet as the artist suggest, for the local clans the ENDEAVOUR'S arrival must have been as mystifying and frightening as the flying fox was to the young english sailor.History"While the ENDEAVOUR underwent repairs at Cooktown, a young crew member became terrified when he came across a flying fox for the first time. He reported to Cook and Banks that he had seen the devil. Peter Hudson imagines that for local clans the ENDEAVOURS’ arrival must have been as mystifying and frightening as the flying fox was to the young sailor. Hudson’s painting evokes a meeting of two distinctive world views. He juxtaposes the indigenous flying fox with a cube, encasing the tropical waters of Cooktown, which represents the pale skin strangers with their strange ways, their technology and science." - East Coast Encounter.
This work by Peter Hudson was produced for East Coast Encounter, a multi-arts initiative involving Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, writers and songwriters to re-imagine the encounter by Lieutenant James Cook and his crew with Indigenous people in 1770.
Peter Hudson was the initiator of the East Coast Encounter concept and was a passionate advocate for the project.
Cook's voyage along the Australian east coast has become central to national historical narratives. The East Coast Encounter project asked artists to re-envisage this seminal journey by imaginatively exploring moments of contact between two world views during these encounters. It also brought these events into the present by incorporating artists' reflections on their relevance today, and their responses to visits to significant contact locations. Topics such as encounter, impact, differing perspectives, nature and culture and views of country are investigated.
SignificanceThis painting by Peter Hudson forms part of the East Coast Encounter project and is significant in providing a contemporary non-Indigenous perspective of first contact and European occupation of Australia.
