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This groundbreaking account is the First Nations story of Cook’s arrival – what Blackfellas want everyone to know about the coming of Europeans. 

Winner, First Nations History award, Canberra Critics’ Circle Awards 2024

Who were the people watching the ‘Endeavour’ sail by and what sense did they make of so strange a vision?  What was the impact of first encounters with Europeans?  The answers lie in tales passed down from 1770 and in truth-telling of the often more brutal engagements that followed.

“Warra Warra Wai” was the expression called to Cook and his crew when they tried to make landfall in Botany Bay.  It has long been interpreted as “Go away”, but is perhaps more accurately translated as “You are all dead spirits”.  This book adds the First Nations version of these first encounters to current Australian history and will sit on bookshelves alongside ‘Cook’s Journals’, ‘Dark Emu’ and ‘The Fatal Shore’ as one of Australia’s foundational texts.