Kamay Botany Bay (ATOM Study Guide)

Kamay Botany Bay is a 69-minute documentary that looks at the history and significance of Botany Bay, or Kamay, as a site that reveals much to us about Australian history.

The film uses the structure of the eight days that Captain (then Lieutenant) James Cook spent there in April/May 1770 to focus on eight different themes related to past, present and future.

It uses historical documents, illustrations, newsreel footage and contemporary interviews with historians, scientists, park rangers and Indigenous residents to explore what happened when two worlds collided in 1770, and what impacts that has had since.

Curriculum Applicability

Kamay Botany Bay is a resource that can be used in middle and senior secondary History/SOSE/HSIE.