2015 Summer Program
James Cook was the son of a farm laborer in northern England. He joined just a few years of formal schooling, hard work, a gift for learning on his own, and a little luck to rise to the command of HMBark Endeavour, a ship that would sail round the world in one of the great scientific expeditions of the18th Century. His journeys would map islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, Australia and New Zealand. His artists and scientists would document the remarkable plants,animals and cultures of the South Pacific. Cook returned to England with a treasure of knowledge.
Construct and rig your own stout Endeavour,. (She had begun her life as a coal carrier.) Assemble a crew and provisions. (Cook chose a diet to protect his crew against malnutrition. Enjoy sauerkraut) Then set sail. Learn basic navigation and map making. Consider the civilizations Cook encountered. Especially the Maori of New Zealand. Construct Maoris in transitional dress, a waka (an ornamented sea canoe) and cultural artifacts that Cook recognized as highly developed. Reenact the challenges of distant civilizations in first encounters.
[Reihana Robinson, a celebrated New Zealand artist, educator, and student of Maori culture helped us plan this workshop.]
Whitney at 250: To observe the 250th anniversary of Whitney’s birth, we are exploring his world and time. James Cook was 37 years old and preparing for his first voyage to the Pacific the year Whitney was born. Whitney was a teen and America was rebelling against England the year Cook died.
