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Possession Island

Artist Peter Hudson

Date2012

Object number00054551

NameDrawing

MediumMix media on paper

DimensionsDisplay dimensions: 390 × 930 × 40 mm
Overall: 930 × 390 × 30 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionA drawing diptych by Peter Hudson titled 'Possession Island'. The work comprises of two drawings / watercolours depicting two different views of the landscape of Possession Island, the particular site were Cook drove in the flag and claimed Australia for the British Empire. The landscape on the left features a view of Possession Island viewed from across the water. The drawing on the right features the island’s bushland detail.HistoryThis 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. On Possession Island, just before sunset on Wednesday 22 August 1770, Cook declared the coast a British 'possession'. Unaware of the consequences it was to have, Cook recorded the event in the event in his log as: "Notwithstand[ing] I had in the Name of His Majesty taken possession of several places upon this coast, I now once more hoisted English Coulers and in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third took possession of the whole Eastern Coast . . . by the name New South Wales, together with all the Bays, Harbours Rivers and Islands situate upon the said coast, after which we fired three Volleys of small Arms which were Answerd by the like number from the Ship." SignificanceThis painting by Peter Hudson is significant in providing an alternate view of first contact and European occupation of Australia.