Canberrans are no strangers to a summer blockbuster exhibition – but never quite like this.

This summer at the National Library of Australia (NLA), not only are there two ground-breaking attractions to floor adults in their scope and ingenuity, but also plenty of activities to keep the little ones occupied.

Cook and the Pacific and Beauty Rich and Rare are the NLA’s summer blockbuster exhibitions, but they’re far from what you might expect, harnessing the Library’s international connections as well as cutting edge technology to bring history to life.

Cook and the Pacific might sound relatively self-explanatory—an exhibition that encompasses Captain James Cook’s journeys around Australia and the Pacific. However, the NLA’s exhibition team haven’t just dug out a portrait or two. Instead, they’ve used their global network of libraries and galleries to bring together an in-depth representation of not only Cook and his crew, but the peoples they met and lived and traded with across Cook’s three expeditions.

As curator Dr Susannah Helman puts it—this is an exhibition about connections formed, not just lands ‘discovered’.

“Cook’s voyages visited many places and that they have an ongoing resonance worldwide. The voyages changed the future of many other places, not just Australia,” she explains, noting that visitors who think they know they story of Captain Cook will likely come away with some surprising new facts.

“I didn’t realise, for example, that Cook’s voyages spent more time in New Zealand waters than anywhere else [and] did you know that they visited Kamchatka, Siberia?”

Susannah is the first to note that Cook is a divisive figure in modern-day Australia and the exhibition addresses this by juxtaposing the old and the new—contemporary portraits with modern takes of Cook’s legacy. These sit alongside souvenirs collected by Cook himself on his voyages (such as tattooing equipment from modern-day Tahiti) as well as a jaw-dropping array of Cook’s own journals. By piecing together these physical objects, a comprehensive picture is drawn of what Cook and his crew experienced, what they saw and who they met along the way, as well as how we see him now.

To prepare for the exhibition, Susannah and her team worked closely with many First Nations peoples from the wide variety of places Cook’s voyages visited, yielding surprising results.

“Amazing records survive from the voyages,” says Susannah. “In the exhibition we have a focus on wordlists—records of Pacific languages—written on the voyage.”

“We’ve spoken to First Nations peoples about them, and they have recorded words for us, and given us their opinions on them. In this way, these records come alive.”

Susannah notes that some of her favourite objects are ones that show the two lives Cook lived—as intrepid voyager, and a member of England’s educated upper class— such as an unfinished waistcoat borrowed from the State Library of New South Wales.

“In two parts, it’s made of tapa (barkcloth) from the Society Islands (French Polynesia),” she explains. “Cook probably brought the tapa back to England himself. Cook’s wife Elizabeth embroidered it for him to wear at court. She never finished it. Though the silk thread she used has faded, you can still see what fine work it is. It’s a wonderful example of an object that fuses Pacific and European traditions.”

Waistcoat of Tahiti Cloth (Tapa) for Captain Cook to Wear at Court, Had He Returned from His Third Voyage, Embroidered by Mrs Elizabeth Cook c. 1779, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, R 198.

Another of her favourite images is one that symbolises that unique interactions Cook’s voyage had with First Nations peoples across the Pacific, such as a simple sketch by voyage artist John Webber from Prince Wiliam Sound Alaska, about which Cook said: “They would not venture alongside but kept talking to us at a distance, not one word of which we understood; they were cloathed in skins made into a dress like a shirt, or rather more like a wagonners frock … When these people first came to the Ships, they displayed a white dress and unfolded their arms to the utmost extent, this we understood to be a sign of friendship and answered them in the same manner.”

John Webber (1752–1793), People of Prince William Sound in Their Canoes 1778, National Library of Australia, Rex Nan Kivell Collection.

“Here you have a meeting where there is an acknowledgement of difference but also communication and connection,” says Susannah. “They were trying. I like it for this moment of connection.”

Just a short elevator ride away, a life-sized experience awaits—and while it seems perfectly timed with Cook and the Pacific, it wasn’t always intended to be shown at the same time.

Stretching 20 metres by 2.5 metres, Beauty Rich and Rare is an immersive multimedia presentation that brings the sketches of Endeavour botanist Joseph Banks and his contemporaries to life.

Working with the same team as produces VIVID Sydney, the NLA was able to do justice to Banks’ and others intricate sketches of Australian flora and fauna, breathing life into history just shy of 250-years-old through brilliant colour, animation and voice overs.

But though both Cook and the Pacific and Beauty Rich and Rare are for all-ages, there’s plenty for little ones to do at the Library over the summer, including in the school holidays.

“During the summer holidays the National Library will be hosting a program of family films, storytelling sessions and drop-in activities,” says Ben Pratten, Education Manager at the NLA. “Most are free (with the exception of Summer Storytime where the $2 per child charge supports the ACT Storyteller’s Guild) and there is something to suit ages 3-12.”

These activities include WordPlay: Cook and the Pacific, which will happen daily during the ACT school holidays—with the exception of Christmas Day—where kids can use their imaginations in this hands-on, interactive area to explore people and places from James Cook’s Pacific voyages.

“Kids and parents can learn together about botany, map making, Indigenous languages and artwork,” says Ben. “Other activities include craft and colouring with space to simply curl up with a book.”

There will also be storytelling and family film screenings across the holidays. For more information on school holiday activities, email bookings@nla.gov.au.

the essentials

What: Cook and the Pacific
When: Showing daily from 10 am – 5 pm until 10 February 2019
Where: The National Library of Australia
Website: nla.gov.au/cook-and-the-pacific

What: Beauty Rich and Rare
When: Showing daily from 10 am – 5 pm until 10 February 2019
Where: The National Library of Australia
Website: nla.gov.au/beauty-rich-and-rare

Images supplied.

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