Cook, Banks and Tupaea by Professor Paul Tapsell

18th Century template to New Zealand's identity in the 21st Century

‘Without Tupaea (Tupaia), the Mäori believe that Cook’s first footsteps on Aotearoa shores in 1769 would have been his last. More by accident than by design Tupaea, the priestly navigator from Ra’iatea, came to be a passenger on the HMS Endeavour voyage after visiting Tahiti. Not only did Tupaea assist Cook with navigation through the rest of East Polynesia, but he also provided an important cultural bridge between the crew and the Mäori on their arrival in Aotearoa.’
(2009: A New Zealand Mäori Perspective: Cook’s three voyages to Aotearoa between 1768-1779. In James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific (Exhibition Catalogue). Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundersrepublik Deutschland GmbH (KAH). Bonn.)

Tapsell will provide a Mäori perspective of Cook’s first voyage to Aotearoa and challenge us to consider the historical actualities on which our ideas of nationhood have been founded. 240 years on, are we ready to acknowledge Tupaea, alongside Cook and Banks, as a pivotal founding hero of the nation of New Zealand?

Dr Paul Tapsell is the Professor of Mäori Studies, and the Dean of Te Tumu, School of Mäori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, at the University of Otago.

In association with The University of Waikato in Tauranga.

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