Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook, with Sam Neill, The (ATOM Study Guide)

The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook, with Sam Neill (Sally Aitken and Kriv Stenders, 2018) is a 6 × 45-minute documentary series that looks at the impact of Cook's three voyages of discovery (of exploration) nearly 250 years ago, and the ways in which the peoples of the Pacific view him now. Sam Neill journeys in Cook's wake, uncovering stories that resonate from those times on both sides of the beach. Visiting the islands and lands where Cook went and meeting the descendants of the people Cook met, Sam hears their stories from oral tradition. What did Cook's arrival mean to Pacific island cultures then and now? And what of the trials and triumphs, disasters and delights that followed? Was Cook an instrument of imperial expansion or an enlightened explorer? Whether admired or admonished, Captain James Cook is forever linked to the Pacific, its heritage and its future. Looking behind the man and the consequences of his extraordinary voyages, Sam speaks to descendants of the many peoples Cook met. He encounters the full spectrum from Cook lovers to Cook haters, but most of all he is touched by Pacific peoples’ resilience, resourcefulness and grace.

Curriculum Links:

The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook, with Sam Neill is a series that can be used to explore key content of Australian and Pacific history, historical concept and aspects of the nature of history – how we know what we know. It also includes voices that are usually hidden, and multiple perspectives on events. Key areas covered are:

• Australian history
• Pacific history
• Causes and consequences
• Change and continuity
• Empathy
• Biography – Cook, Banks, Tupaia
• Indigenous histories
• Imperialism and colonialism
• Enlightenment
• Identity
• Commemoration
• Perspectives
• Reconciliation
• Oral history
• Representation of history through a documentary film