'On the afternoon of first contact Cook's crew shot two Gwaegal men who opposed them from the shore. Cook observed, correctly, "all they seem'd to want was for us to be gone".'

In the December issue of Meanjin Paul Daley takes a long look at the complex legacy of James Cook. In a timely essay ahead of the Cook sestercentennial in 2020, Daley digs deep into the many and conflicting strands of this Australian colonial foundation story. Was Cook a blameless master navigator? Or should he be connected intimately to the dispossession of First Nations peoples that followed his voyage of 1770?

Also in this issue, writing from: Gabrielle Chan, Bri Lee, Greg Jericho, Tony Birch, Gregory Day, Robbie Arnott, Ruby Hamad, Mesh Tennakoon, Carmel Bird, Oliver Mestitz, Emma Marie Jones, Belinda Rule, Anthony Lawrence, Geoff Page, Jaya Savige and more.