In Voices in the Park Charles gives Smudge a flower. She takes it home and puts it in a mug.

We designed our own mugs and wrote about them.

Next they got rolled into cylinders and put up on the wall.

 

We talked about Cook’s secret mission to get land for Britain. Although it was written in his instructions that the inhabitants were children of God and to be treated with kindness, this was not the popular view of the day.

The Doctrine of Discovery justified the expansion of Christian empires and was used until very recently as an argument in courts of law.

We talked about the concept of ‘The Other” and whether someone being different justifies mistreatment.

 

Should we take things from “The Other”

No! Because they need their lands and it belongs to their country and don’t think if your skin’s white and other people’s faces are different than you, you don’t hit them because it’s the same people and you don’t say bad words to them.
-Emily

No! Because it’s not fair for other countries.
-Robin

No! Because they would have war and war is bad and it would be unfair.
-Guanyu

Yes! Because:
1/ I can take Chinese things like books or chairs or something.
2/ I can take New Zealand’s snacks.
(But we pay for them)
-Ha Eum Mok

No! Because people then would start war because they are angry at losing their land.
-Sebastian

No! Because it’s not nice and it’s rude and they will start a fight and “The Other” will be angry.
-Milyn

No! Because it is very rude and it will start a war. They will never be their friends and they will never see them again.
Maliepō

We talked about the meaning of the word ‘discovery’ in relation to Captain Cook ‘discovering’ things around the Pacific.

Here are some of our ideas about this.

Did Captain Cook discover countries?

No! Because it’s not Tera Nullius. Terra Nullius means no-one is there.
-Robin

In 1770, Captain Cook discovered the south east coast of Australia, landing in Botany Bay. On 22 August, 1770, he claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia at Possession Island, naming eastern Australia New South Wales.
-Ha Eum Mok

No because he went to New Zealand, Australia and many countries. Captain Cook couldn’t discover countries because there were many people in the countries.
-Emily

Captain Cook discovered all of the continents except for the south continent that was Australia and New Zealand. But one day he found those two lands and he claimed them for Britain.
-Sebastian

No! Because there already people there and there’s no people there anymore because people already left so it is easy to say it is Terrible Nullius.
-Guanyu

Yes. He went to New Zealand and South Africa and Tonga and that’s how he went to places and the people told him to ask people for land or, if people are not giving a piece of land, they have it for themselves.
-Milyn