James Cook is one of the most contested figures in Aotearoa New Zealand’s past. Today, his name evokes not only exploration and scientific endeavour but also the violence of first encounters and the enduring legacies of colonisation. Historian Tony Ballantyne asks what these shifting narratives on Cook reveal about history and the making of national identity.
Ballantyne traces three key phases in how Cook has been understood, from his death through to recent commemorations marking 250 years since Cook’s arrival in New Zealand. The first, imperial memory, centres on British authority and benevolence. In the twentieth century this gives way to a distinct national history, shaped by influential historians and state-sponsored celebrations. Postcolonial memory follows, centring Māori perspectives and opening Cook to fierce debate across scholarship, politics and artistic expression.
Throughout, Ballantyne examines how ‘competing Cooks’ are invoked – in memorials and protests, in academic debate and artistic expression, and in the arguments that continue to shape how New Zealanders understand their past. Engrossing and wide-ranging, the book moves between the perspectives of historians, artists and activists to show how these arguments have shaped New Zealand’s historical consciousness. It is a major contribution to our understanding of Cook and the unsettled legacies of empire.