Journalist Stan Grant narrates a documentary that aims to challenge Captain Cook’s false narrative about the relationship between Indigenous Australians and Muslims during the pre-colonial era.
The project, Before 1770, was made by the Abu Hanifa Institute, which is based in Sydney’s west. It recreates the journey that a sea cucumber fisherman took from Indonesia’s Sulawesi island to Australia.
Promotional materials for the film claim that it aims to encapsulate the history and experiences of Muslims in Australia prior to the First Fleet.
Sheik Wesam Chakawi, the project’s director, said that they wanted to challenge Cook’s false depiction of the relationship between Muslims and Indigenous Australians.
According to some archaeologists, Australia has been inhabited by the country’s Aboriginal people for at least 50,000 years.
It’s widely believed that the history of the region’s Indigenous people spans 65,000 years. Captain James Cook and Arthur Phillip arrived in Australia in 1770 and 1778, respectively. The First Fleet’s arrival marked the official start of the country’s colonization.
The movie’s promotional materials show a recreation of a pre-colonial sailor, who is presumed to be Captain Cook, on a vessel. As Grant narrates the vision, he asks how people can connect with a country that has been founded on lies.
During a Q&A program in 2018, Grant was subjected to racist abuse after he made controversial comments about the impact of colonialism on Australia.
He then stood down from his job as a host of the program. In his next book, he argued that the monarchy should be abolished in the country. He also called for a reckoning regarding the injustices experienced by the country’s Indigenous people.
Warren Mundine, an Indigenous businessman, referred to the Macassans as cousins to the Indigenous people of Australia. He said that the country’s current existence started during the colonial period, following Captain Phillip’s arrival in 1788.
Campbell Macknight, a university professor, said that it was very challenging to believe that everything that’s currently known about Australia, including its institutions, is a lie.
He added that the goal of the documentary is to keep young Muslims from being alienated from the country.
According to Macknight, the political goal of the film was to reassure the Muslim community in western Sydney that Australia is a place where they can belong.
Sally May, an associate professor at the University of Adelaide, said there was evidence showing that there was contact between the Macassan and Indigenous Australians before Captain Cook’s arrival.
Archaeologists believe that there have been ongoing contact with the Australian people for hundreds of years prior to the 1600s.
Although the contact may not have been directly related to the hunting skills of the Macassan, it could have been related to the exchange of other items.
Nigel Biggar, an Oxford theologian, said that Australia’s history predated its arrival of the British.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australia had been divided into multiple groups, and there was no single indigenous group in the country, he noted.
Instead, it should be depicted as a country that was created based on the stories of different groups.
2 Comments
So, the indigenous industry want to accept muslims as citizens of Australia , but not white Europeans? Interesting. I’d love to hear the rational reasoning behind that decision.
I don’t really understand what the lies are?