ABC - The Pacific In the Wake of Captain Cook (2018) Part 1 Endeavour and 3 Endeavour and Australia

A rich, complex and engaging account of Cook's voyages across the Pacific, from actor and raconteur Sam Neill. Pacific with Sam Neill follows Captain James Cook's three voyages to the Pacific – from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and from Tahiti to Australia and New Zealand. Fascinating, engaging, fresh and vital - this is history … but not as you know it. It's been 250 years since Captain James Cook's first Voyage across the pacific, something that would forever change the lives of the Indigenous communities he would encounter. Revered in some quarters yet hated in others, why does he still matter? That's the question actor Sam Neill is looking to answer in this compelling series. History is taking to the seas and walking in the footsteps of Captain James Cook. 250 years after Cook began his epic exploration of the Pacific, Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) journeys in his wake uncovering stories that resonate from those times on both sides of the beach. Sam begins with a disclaimer – he is merely an actor – but the story of Cook, and the impact he has had on the Pacific in the 250 years since his first voyage, has always fascinated him. Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768, just over 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed. Visiting the islands and lands where Cook went and meeting the descendants of the people Cook met, Sam, in this 6 part series, explores the trials and triumphs, disasters and delights that followed. He takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself. 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. Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps, engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice and peoples. The series aired on Foxtel's HISTORY channel in Australia and Prime TV in New Zealand in 2018. Based on the book “The Pacific” by Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios.

Part 3 Endeavour and Australia

The third of six episodes following Sam Neill travelling in the wake of Captain Cook around the Pacific, 250 years on from when Cook made his first voyage. Having fulfilled his Admiralty brief Captain Cook opted to tale the long way back to Britain so he could chart the East Coast of Australia and explore the mysterious land. The Aboriginal people showed more caution than their Polynesian counterparts upon the Endeavour's arrival seemingly indifferent to the strangers and wishing them gone. This understandable reticence was misinterpreted and later led to the myth of Terra Nullius. Sam travels from Botany Bay up the east coast to Cooktown, learning about a country that far from being nobodies' land was comprehensively inhabited by a well established culture.

Full Version Available Upon Request
Related Documentary