The View from the Shore

Accounts of James Cook’s ‘discovery’ of Australia have long been told solely from the viewpoint of European colonisers, an imbalance that Steven McGregor’s documentary seeks to rectify. Presented by spoken-word poet Steven Oliver and structured around thematically inspired tracks by Indigenous musicians – along with discussion of the events surrounding Cook’s expedition by a range of expert interviewees – the film is an educational opportunity for all Australians, writes Rebekah Brammer.

Making its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2020, documentary Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky (Steven McGregor) opens a dialogue to re-examine James Cook’s arrival in Australia – an event whose 250th anniversary was also marked last year – from an Indigenous perspective. The film flips the Cook narrative to what presenter and co-writer Steven Oliver calls ‘the view from the shore’, pointing out that, instead, ‘we’ve always been told the perspective of the view from the ship’.¹

As Oliver follows Cook’s landing and journey up the eastern coast of Australia, the Indigenous perspective is expressed through a specially commissioned songline, providing emotional responses and reflections to these historical events. Acclaimed Ngarrindjeri composer and performer Daniel Rankine (aka Trials) explains that, for Indigenous people, songlines represent both ‘where we’re from and, most importantly, where we’re going’; accordingly, a range of artists with diverse