Sovereignty Was Never Ceded
This artwork is an adaptation of a commissioned portrait of Captain James Cook, painted by Nathaniel Dance, 1776. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Greenwich Hospital Collection.
Rather than celebrating Cook as a hero this adaptation looks to acknowledge the terror he brought to the Pacific, his role in colonising Aotearoa and the destruction and death that would follow. The impact of these first encounters would be felt by the indigenous people of the Pacific for centuries to come.
Edition of 25. This represents the life expectancy of Māori in the years that would follow these first encounters. Prior to that, life expectancy was thought to be equal to, or greater than that of the coloniser’s.
5000 X 5000PX (NFT), 300DPI
