Warra Warra Wai: How Indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook, and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People

by Darren Rix, Craig Cormick

For the first time, the First Nations story of Cook’s arrival, and what blackfellas want everyone to know about the coming of Europeans

Both 250 years late and extremely timely, this is an account of what First Nations people saw and felt when James Cook navigated their shores in 1770. 

We know the European story from diaries, journals and letters. For the first time, this is the other side. Who were the people watching the Endeavour sail by? How did they understand their world and what sense did they make of this strange vision? And what was the impact of these 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.

Darren Rix (a Gunditjmara-GunaiKurnai man, radio reporter and Archie Roach’s nephew) and his co-author Craig Cormick travelled to all the places on the east coast that were renamed by Cook, and listened to people’s stories. With their permission, these stories have been woven together with the European accounts and placed in their deeper the places Cook named already had names; the places he ‘discovered’ already had peoples and stories stretching back before time; and although Cook sailed on, the empire he represented impacted the people’s lives and lands immeasurably in the years after.

‘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’. In adding the First Nations version of these first encounters to the story of Australian history, this is a book that will sit on Australian shelves alongside Cook’s Journals, Dark Emu and The Fatal Shore as one of our foundational texts.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Australia, Audiobook, Indigenous, Historical, Book Club

403 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2024

About the author

Darren Rix, a Gunditjmara-GunaiKurnai man with Ngarigo bloodlines, grew up in the tin huts and tents of ‘Silver City’, South Nowra, with his eleven siblings. His family later got their first house in the Bega Valley, and he attended school in Bega. At fourteen, Darren moved to Ngunnawal country – Canberra – to which he has songline ties through his Ngarigo bloodlines. He has worked as a radio reporter for the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, and with the Ngunnawal people as a cultural sites officer in Canberra. Darren is an accomplished musician, as was his uncle, Archie Roach. He has appeared in the TV program Rake. Darren has six children and twelve grandchildren.

Reviews

[Luka · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good example of how truth telling can revolutionise the way we perceive the history of this country. A beautiful reframing of Australian history that better reflects the magisty and abundance of Country. Fuck you cook dumb dog

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Canadian, I hadn’t grown up being familiar with the one-sided written account of Captain Cook and the settlers' “discovery” of Australia as I’m sure so many Australians have. I’m so glad that the first time that I heard this story, it included the foundational voices of the First People. Mob from Gunaikurai country, through to Kaurareg country, recount venerable oral histories and Dreamtime alongside the known written journals of Captain Cook and settlers. It is no question horrific and heartbreaking to hear about the experiences the First People have lived through ever since the settlers stepped foot on their land; their customs and rituals that had been practiced and honed for tens of thousands of years, taken for “savagery” through the dogmatic European lens. It is the narrative from the First People that seems to always be missing from the museums and plaques throughout the entirety of this country.
This book, being written by an Indigenous Australian and a white Australian, is a beautiful showcase of a space of collaboration, listening, and coming together, which seems desperately needed in much of Australia.
It goes unsaid that every Australian should read this book and listen to the unheard side of the history of the place they call home.

[Graham Senders · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit that I found the style a little off-putting. Maybe too folksy for me? Or perhaps because I don't read much oral history, I was not ready for the authors' approach. And this way, of introducing the settings for the discussions the authors had with their interviewees, well I can see why they did it. But as I said, for me, jarring.

Anyway I will spill one of their observations here, which makes this work memorable. They reckon that oral histories can be as accurate as the written record. And then they drop the perfect example. What it is? I'll leave that for future readers to discover. I'll just say that I have already seen the revision in an article in The Conversation. And perhaps, not too far away, it will be a common usage.

Anyways, on another plus side, there are footnotes, pages of them! Which is welcome after a certain European history I reviewed recently which had none. Apparently standards are still maintained down here.

In short, this is a compendium of oral histories handed down regarding the first European contact along Australia's east coast. Those of us raised in the west know that this contact came over 100 years after similar contact in the west. But this one was pivotal. And this book pulls the lid a little further back on 1769. Which is worth it.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insights and comments from the southern communities as Cook’s journey is traced northwards are fuller and contrast with the briefer insights from the northern communities. This may reflect the lesser contact with Cook further north but does leave the book feeling like it peters out rather than having a good finish.

[leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

thoroughly informative and insightful view into first nation’s peoples experiences of cook, and the subsequent settlers invading their lands. blended a mixture of culture, education, humour and sadness. should be required reading for all australians.

[Zara Chauvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Truth telling that needs to be done.

Goes up the coast from gunaikurnai country up to kaurareg country following the path the endeavour took with captain cook, from the perspective of mob.
First Nations communities were asked to share their stories of discovering captain cook, and early interactions with colonialists.

Incredibly informative - drawing on primarily shared oral histories, as well as documented work by historians and ‘settlers’ / ‘explorers’.

Of course since the book covers so many perspectives, so many encounters, so much country and so many different nations, it is a little shallow in representing each communities experience. Dreaming stories and histories from different mob are touched on, but not explored much. This makes total sense for the thesis of the book and I don’t think should count to it’s discredit - but worth noting that we need more books coming out like this because there’s a lot more stories to be told.

A particular area of history since colonisation that this book describes in detail which I hadn’t really heard of before is the ‘native police’.

“It is a dark and very complex story, but it is a necessary story to tell as part of truth-telling.”

Massive trigger warnings for mob, as there’s lots of reference to violence and massacres, as well as rape and sexual violence, slavery, and land theft or degradation.

[Deb Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect audiobook for an Australian road trip! (Would have been even better if I’d been heading up the east coast! But it was excellent nevertheless!)
Such a well thought out and executed book which really gives voice, and shared oral history stories, to mob along the east coast with their varying and rich memories of Cook’s expedition in the Endeavour in 1770. And with so so many interactions with local people, there’s no way he could have thought this land was terra nullius! Many also documented in his journal. What complete bullshit that this country was declared territory of Great Britain. The source of the shame and injustice which has been compounded again and again in waves of war and violent settlement. Great read and great work, I could feel the genuiness of their work and retelling, sympathetic and very powerful.

[Linda Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely engaging, like sitting round a camp fire listening to a couple of blokes telling their stories. Excellent and so well done. No hatred, no splitting hairs, no fictionalised bias…just straight up evidence based truth telling.
The interweaving of perspectives, one from the mob with stories passed down through generations, the other from a white fella reading from the journals and accounts of the seafarers.

I’ve noted this book as one to read again and again. Lots of information to take in.

Schools could easily use this work as book study content for years 5 and up!
I remember reading The Goat who Sailed The World with a class 5/6 for a whole term and that could have gone on for two. Students were so engaged in some of those interactions between Cook and the First Nation People, all the stories and especially the stealing of the turtles in Cape Tribulation. Their research skills were at a peak by then and they were mortified!!!

Well enough of my rambling..

[Leena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great snapshot of different First Nations experiences with Lt Cook along the east coast. Excellent research throughout the book. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from people directly.
A great read that I recommend to anyone who wishes to start their journey with truth telling on Australian history.

[Kristen Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so thankful this has been written, and I think everyone in Australia should read it. Each chapter covers the story of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people group on the east coast of Australia, based on interviews. It covers both their experiences of the arrival of Captain Cook and the first settlers as well as some of their prominent stories and history from before and after. It is told in a respectful way- allowing truth telling but with a hopeful rather than despairing tone.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a fantastic text for high school students in so many ways. I highly recommend listening as opposed to only reading as the language is so much richer and of course, accurate!!

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a child in Tasmania, learning about the history of Australia, it was as though nothing happened before European discovery and later settlement. We were taught that there were no longer any Indigenous Tasmanians and, apart from the mention of two or three noteworthy Indigenous mainlanders, we learned nothing of pre-European history of the Australian continent. All of this means that I never really thought much about how European arrival was viewed by those Indigenous Australians who had contact with Cook in 1770. Sigh.

This book made me think about some of the points made in the book’s description:
‘We know the European story from diaries, journals and letters. For the first time, this is the other side. Who were the people watching the Endeavour sail by? How did they understand their world and what sense did they make of this strange vision? And what was the impact of these 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.

Darren Rix (a Gunditjmara-GunaiKurnai man, radio reporter and Archie Roach’s nephew) and his co-author Craig Cormick travelled to all the places on the east coast that were renamed by Cook, and listened to people’s stories. With their permission, these stories have been woven together with the European accounts and placed in their deeper the places Cook named already had names; the places he ‘discovered’ already had peoples and stories stretching back before time; and although Cook sailed on, the empire he represented impacted the people’s lives and lands immeasurably in the years after.’

Well worth reading.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both 250 years late and extremely timely, this is an account of what First Nations people saw and felt when James Cook navigated their shores in 1770. ‘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 was a super captivating book, and it was a very interesting angle to see Cook’s arrival from the point of view of Indigenous people. It was also fascinating to see the discrepancy between history told verbally through generations vs. the official history captured in writing.

The point about Cook’s discovery of ‘new’ places (not new to the existing community) which he named (they already had names) really hit me. It showed me the arrogance of human beings - the need to disregard existing foundations that had been laid by others and the boldness of claiming anything as one person’s achievement. As a side note, has this really changed? Have you had a new boss at work who just starts changing everything on day one and claiming them as their own achievement?

I always like the idea of learning about the past to improve the future (and not repeat the same mistakes). I’d highly recommend all Australians (and international readers too) to check this out.

(Thanks to Libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Australia for a gifted review copy)

See my bookstagram review.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic example of 'truth telling' charting Cook's voyage up the east coast of Australia using his journals plus the stories from local Indigenous people in each area. It's amazing how your perspective of history changes when you are given a more complete story of events. I really liked the unique approach of each different group to the recounting of oral histories and stories plus events in the aftermath. I was a bit disappointed with the ending of the book and felt like it needed a final chapter of commentary or 'rounding up' of the truth telling process, but perhaps the editorial decision was to leave that thinking process to the reader. Regardless, it is a thought-provoking and enlightening read. I hope more researchers and authors will take up the challenge to write stories where the 'accepted' white version of 'history' is balanced with indigenous truth telling about the real events surrounding the fabled narratives of Australian history.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and thought provoking account of the voyage up the east coast of Australia by James Cook and the reactions of the First Nations people to the ghost people who were the harbingers of the horror and dispossession that was to come with the subsequent arrival of the convicts and soldiers of the first fleet.

This is truth telling at its most raw, storytelling handed down by the survivors who were living in paradise and who found themselves in hell after their country was stolen by the British. These stories need to be told and thought on and this book is a great start.

[Di · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collaboration between a white Australian and indigenous Australian historian. The book charts Cook’s voyage along the east coast of Australia (New Holland) in 1770. Each chapter begins with a quote from Cook’s journals and then proceeds to tell the story of that area based on the stories of the indigenous tribes. It includes some of the Dreamtime creation stories, the original place names and a retelling of various events from an indigenous point of view. It is both interesting and very readable.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for all Australians. The authors have artfully blended the journals of Endeavour voyagers with the oral histories of First Nations people along the entire east coast, providing much-needed context to a pivotal time in our history. An extraordinary amount of research has gone into this, and yet it never feels dense. It is sad in parts, funny in others, and overall deeply moving.

[Pam Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book with lots of knowledge of Cook's voyage both from Cook's records and from the lore of the indigenous peoples. I've learnt so much about places I have lived. The only thing I would have liked to see included are first nations contacts in different areas so we can find out more.
It would also be great to have similar studies on the paths of the overland explorers, and other sea voyagers.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent piece of truth telling by a multicultural writing duo. The book draws from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources to both track Cook's voyage of Australia's east coast and to assess the legacy of Cook's arrival by yarning with local First Nations knowledge-holders and elders.

One thing the book might need is a short epilogue to weave the different threads together, but this isn't totally necessary as each chapter is it's own little story.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook from the indigenous people's perspective of seeing The Endeavour sail up the East Coast of Australia back in 1770.
I've read quite a bit of the history and various fictional perspectives, a couple from an indigenous perspective but this is one of the best. Beautifully told and well researched. I loved listening to all the different spoken languages of the East Coast. Highly recommended.

[Heather Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darren Rix and Craig Cormick provide a fresh (to me) First Nations perspective of Cook's first journey along the East Coast of Australia. I really enjoyed learning about the long history behind landmarks that I grew up seeing and see everyday, and the people who lived here. I read this book in tandem with Dark Emu, which I recommend. Books like this one should be included in school curriculum, and I'll be recommending it to everyone.

[Layne White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smashing out the audiobooks on my newly acquired daily commute. A truth telling exercise which should be way more widely publicised. I found all the place names that I’ve never thought twice about really interesting. It’s sad that so much of this country’s true history and culture much has vanished and quite deliberately. This book tries to put some puzzle pieces together.

[Lidya · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I've always been aware that the arrival of Captain Cook & the First Fleet was the most devastating events to befall the Indigenous People, having a book dedicated to the reframing of this event and all the subsequent atrocities that occurred following is a necessity that should be included in our schooling and education systems.

[Cathryn Wellner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain Cook's 1770 voyage along Australia's east coast may ring glorious sounds in settler history, but the people he and his men met tell a different story. The book gives accounts of the history remembered by First Nations inhabitants. It is fascinating insight into the history that should be taught in every Australian classroom.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re an Australian wanting to know where to start with truth-telling, I strongly recommend Warra Warra Wai. Sensitively and accessibly written; these are voices and stories that have not been heard by most and need to be, by all of us. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this book.

[Tesmos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tremendous read/listen. Cleverly constructed and provides a much needed resource in truth telling. I listened to it which I thoroughly enjoyed. Well narrated.

[Nick Judd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and accessible re writing of the contact story of Australia!

[Ruth Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important reading especially for those of us who have been taught the one sided version of Cook's arrival in Australia.

[Belinda Loves Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting read. I loved finding out more on the stories behind our natural landmarks.

[Mollie Kate Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved listening to this audiobook so much, what beautiful stories, imagery, and culture. I would love to also read the physical book for the full experience!!!