Encounters of the Third Kind:

Encounters of the Third Kind:

Arrival and First Contact in Witi Ihimaera’s Sky Dancer

and Robert Sullivan’s Captain Cook in the Underworld

Femke F. Bos Student number: 1207881

Supervisor: Dr. I. Visser Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Preface

I will briefly relate how I came to write about this particular topic and moment in history. My original interest in New Zealand Aotearoa and my study exchange to the Victoria University of Wellington for one semester, where I took courses in New Zealand literature and Pacific history, did much to spark a desire to write about a New Zealand Aotearoa related literary topic. I found the literature of this island culture with its large population of immigrants fascinating, but when I discovered how the indigenous Maori population had started to write in recent years, transforming their oral culture into a literary style I had not encountered before, I wished to write about them.

With Drs. Heidi van den Heuvel-Disler’s help I searched for a suitable topic and found one in the combination of Witi Ihimaera’s Sky Dancer and Robert Sullivan’s Captain Cook in the Underworld with the historic arrival of Captain James Cook at New Zealand Aotearoa. I have found this topic fascinating and I enjoyed interpreting these texts, even when these interpretations did not seem natural or valid at first. It makes me all the more happy to find that Ihimaera himself gave an explanation of his novel corroborating my thesis.

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Chapter One 9

First Encounters and First Contact: Various Historical and Critical Views

Chapter Two 21

The Arrival on the Coast: First Contact and Colonialism

Chapter Three 32

Venus as Catalyst: Bountiful Presence or Gateway of Conflict?

Conclusion 41

Introduction

And now I pluck a line of poets turned in unison to the sun following the warmth of unseen rays until they splay on vowels with colours. Homer Curnow Dante Rimbaud Tuwhare Baxter – Mãui and Orphic blood. Robert Sullivan; Captain Cook in the Underworld

This dissertation takes as its subject the arrival of Captain James Cook at New Zealand Aotearoa and his first contact with the indigenous Maori population in relation to two texts, Sky Dancer by Witi Ihimaera and Captain Cook in the Underworld by Robert Sullivan. The main issue is how these two literary works interpret this arrival. This interpretation becomes interesting when we link the texts to each other and the historical event itself. The narratives have humans, birds and gods as their protagonists and they are of great relevance when discussing themes of first contact and colonialism, but their historical framework needs to be addressed first.

The first chapter of this dissertation addresses this historical framework and constructs an overview of Captain Cook and his journey to make landfall at the supposed continent that was believed to counterbalance the continents on the north side of the earth, which turned out to be New Zealand Aotearoa. Incorporated are his first encounters with the indigenous Maori population and all the different accounts that were written about these contacts: These range from Cook to his crewmembers, from the Maori storytellers to the white clergy who wrote down their narratives, and from the early historical biographies that were written about Cook to the critical histories that were written when opinion had finally changed to favour the Maori viewpoint instead of Cook’s.

anthropologists and authors. The development of the theme of Cook’s arrival is continued in the two texts by Ihimaera and Sullivan, describing Cook’s accounts of first contact, the remnants of Maori oral culture that refer to this event, the further repetitions and discussions of the encounters between them that others have written, relating this to the fictional texts that Ihimaera and Sullivan wrote so recently. Chapter one discusses how Cook’s story developed and changed in content and meaning over the years so that I can compare this development with the event as it is fictionally dealt with by Ihimaera and Sullivan in chapter two.

The choice of Witi Ihimaera’s Sky Dancer and Robert Sullivan’s Captain Cook in the Underworld, which feature in the second chapter, deserves some explanation. The novel Sky Dancer demands an explanation since its link with Cook, which I wish to argue, is less obvious than in Sullivan’s poem. In the story a young girl is asked to help prevent a second battle between land birds and seabirds, an event of biblical quality prophesised many generations ago by Maori women called the handmaidens of Tane. This Maori god released the birds from heaven and is responsible for the division between land birds and seabirds, which led to the seabirds’ envy of the land birds and resulted in the first war. The girl proves to be the one spoken of in the prophesies and she saves the day. In the process she learns many things about Maori mythology, legends, the values that the birds and Maori hold dear, and the fact that she’s part Maori and destined to become the protector of the forest that is one of the last remnants of Maori land.

But while Skylark is Ihimaera’s central protagonist around whom the events take place, she is only a spokesperson of its most important argument, or theme. The emphasis of the novel is upon the battle between the birds, presented with a deliberate blend of Western religion, mythology, fairytales and movies with Maori culture, mythology and beliefs. There is an understanding that the Pakeha, or white immigrants, are to blame for colonising Maori land, leaving them unable to live on their land. Such aspects are directly related to the arrival of the first white men, and thus the first encounters with Captain James Cook. The blend of cultures could be an indicator of the forced nature of the relationship between Maori and Pakeha, and of their similarities and differences in values.

mirroring Cook and the Maori was an interpretation on my side, but I believe it is no coincidental symbol. Ihimaera incorporates an exciting, page turning, action packed storyline with a cultural and social critique of the western impact on Maori ways of living by pointing out the invasive nature of the seabirds, or Cook. It is a pleasant benefit that he is able to be witty about it too.

Recently Ihimaera has corroborated my interpretation of Sky Dancer as commenting on Cook’s arrival. In his story “in the year of prince harry” he mentions a film scenario that is to be written about a girl who turns into a bird and travels back in time to help land birds fight a war against seabirds. His remark about this storyline, which has everything to do with Sky Dancer, is that it is “transparently about Maori and Pakeha relationships” (105).

In Captain Cook in the Underworld Sullivan investigates and discusses Cook’s actions, his reasons, and the state of his mind and soul. His poetry stages a various cast of sailors, Polynesians, mythological figures and gods from both cultures. Sullivan introduces Cook as if he is looking back on his life and actions after his death. A troubled soul, Cook is confronted with his own western gods and mythology, Pacific gods and myths, and the Polynesians themselves. This confrontation reaches far into the constructs of Western beliefs and ideas forcing Cook to see, recognise and regret his actions, which allows the reader new perspectives on Cook’s own myth.

Sullivan soon shifts the focus of his poem from Cook and western myth to the Polynesians and their mythology. This shift to Polynesian culture and social conduct contrasts Cook’s beliefs with other values and beliefs. A foreign land, and a foreign people are confusing and difficult to deal with for Cook. In lyrical poetry, with lines and stanzas that carry many voices, Sullivan is able to represent a sense of acceptance of his colonial behaviour. Perhaps it may even be characterised as a rite of passage in that Cook, and the reader, must first understand what the impact of Cook’s arrival has been and still is before there can be recognition, and maybe even forgiveness and brotherhood.

Thus Venus allows Cook to undertake a journey similar to the one which Polynesians undertook much earlier to find New Zealand Aotearoa.

To complete its role in history and fiction, in Sullivan’s text Venus features as the goddess that she is in Greek myth. She can be quite interchangeable in her favours, not favouring Cook over the Maori, so she functions as a goddess of the Polynesians as well. When it comes to Cook’s invasive actions she warns him of violence and advises him to be respectful towards the Maori. Thus, she displays an understanding of both cultures crediting the Maori complaint of Cook. This last chapter discusses the place that the planet and goddess Venus has in the historic events, and the effect it has on Cook and Maori alike, in history and in the literary texts by Ihimaera and Sullivan.

The question I ask is how the planet, and goddess, Venus, is represented in some historical and literary narratives that have been told or written since Cook arrived and first contact took place. My aim is to extrapolate the remarkable nature of Ihimaera’s and Sullivan’s texts by lifting out and examining Venus’ role in their work. I hope that this will shed some new light on Cook’s journey, on the Maori culture, and their mutual narratives. And perhaps more importantly, this study of one single aspect featuring in both stories may also show how one particular event and its aftermath in various narratives may develop, always finding new avenues that have not been looked down as yet.

Chapter One

First Encounters and First Contact:

Various Historical and Critical Views

Introduction

Captain James Cook first arrived in New Zealand Aotearoa in 1769. He recorded this period, in which he first met and contacted the Maori population, in his journals that benefited the Royal Society at the time. Today these journals provide information on how events were perceived by Cook himself and on what he wanted his employers to know. This first chapter deals with Cook’s view of his dealings with the Maori and with some of the more recent accounts and discussions that were written on the topic of Cook’s arrival at New Zealand Aotearoa and his first meetings with the Maori. For instance, in the 1970s J.C. Beaglehole wrote a biography of Cook. His text did not vitally change Cook’s own rendition of events and held up the idea of heroism in which light his actions were still seen. In more recent years the accounts of Cook’s exploits were reinterpreted, and credited differently. This time the Maori’s oral culture was equally credited.

In this chapter the topic of Cook’s arrival in New Zealand Aotearoa will be introduced. Cook as a person, his travels, his actions and his writings are at the basis of any discussion of this event, but the main purpose is not to dissect his journals and his part in history. My intent is to give a brief overview of the journal entries Cook wrote on the Maori and of the critical texts that were produced with these entries in hindsight. The accounts of Cook’s arrival that have survived in Maori storytelling and the accounts that were written down by European immigrants completes the overview. I hope it shows that sources on both sides of the waterfront may now be used.

When Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth on the 26th _{of August 1768 heading for the}

measurements of the transitional phase when Venus passes through the sun were taken on different points around the earth so that the distance between sun and earth could be calculated with more accuracy. With that vital piece of information the distances to all other planets could be established enabling great improvements in navigational techniques, especially in determining longitudes, which before had primarily been guesswork.

On King George’s Island Cook and his crew set up a fort to protect their valuable equipment and they settled in for a long stay. The proceedings of the transit and the need for supplies and repairs kept the Endeavour ashore for nearly three months. But as soon as the measurements had successfully been completed, the decks well stocked and all maintenance finished, Cook announced the Endeavour’s imminent departure. As the journals published on the website “South Seas” of the National Library of Australia show he was eager to leave and continue his mission with the second set of orders, so he intended to “sail as soon as ever the wind will permit us to get out of the harbour.”1

He left harbour on the 9th _{of August sailing south. This was one of the main requirements}

of his second set of orders, which actually were the Navy’s and Cook’s main concern. The Royal Society paid to have her scientific research done, but it was the objective of the second envelope that mattered most. Cook was to go in search of the famed “Great Southern Continent,” a continent that was believed to exist simply because there had to be a landmass in the south big enough to balance that in the north. Unless Cook encountered the continent on his way south he was to go no further than 40º degrees latitude. Then he had to turn west and sail on until he either discovered the sought after terra incognita or, as Michael King cites the Admiralty’s orders in his The Penguin History of New Zealand, “fell in with the Eastern side of the land discover’d by Tasman and now called New Zeland” (102).

According to his mission Cook turned west at 40º degrees latitude, otherwise known as the “Roaring Forties.” He remained at sea for two more months, when the Endeavour finally fell in with land. This land was declared fervently to be the “Southern Continent,” although Cook himself openly doubted that assumption. These doubts were disclosed in his journals, so that they not only provided his employer, the Royal Navy, with information on geographical and economical issues, but also gave an insight in his opinions. They now prove an invaluable source to historians and other

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scholars as one of the few records written at that time. Here Cook can function as an eye-witness, although probably not an impartial one.

Cook’s First Impressions

The journals Cook kept were first of all a ship’s log. A captain used it to report wind directions, the ship’s speed in knots or its position. Additional information could include lists of supplies, materials used for repairs and reports on the sailors’ behaviour, including punishments. Cook’s journals also describe the unknown lands he encounters and its inhabitants, complete with maps and sketches to illustrate his findings. Unfortunately for the modern reader such descriptions do not add much flavour to the text. Cook gives his opinion but refrains from elaborations, no doubt in order to stay within the boundaries of his mission and to render his journals as factual and practical as possible. Cook’s feelings were of no interest to the Navy.

Journals such as Cook’s were used to determine further enterprises in the visited areas and they provided a wealth of information for captains travelling in similar directions. So with his commissioner in mind Cook paid attention to nautical events. Of even greater interest however were the signs, or no signs, of land. In his search for land it was essential to pay attention to clues like sounding to determine decreasing depth, the colour of the water, swells, birds and driftwood. But, as soon as Cook found land such observations were replaced by notes on the country and its population, which proved to be different from the friendly Tahitians whom he encountered before, even though their physical appearances and language seemed very similar.

It was to be expected that the Endeavour’s crew was in need of supplies after months spent at sea. But in Cook’s journals shortages in water, food, or wood are never mentioned. Instead Cook procured such necessities from the Maori whenever trade was possible, or he made use of what the land offered. Apart from supplies Cook and the naturists on board wished to trade trinkets brought for the purpose in exchange for botanical specimens and cultural artefacts. These instances point to a willingness and custom to trade by Europeans and Maori alike. Trade thus forms Cook’s main reason for contact with the native population. A further sign of disinterest in the Maori as a people and their culture is found in Cook’s use of their lands. Trees are felled, casks are filled with water, and plants are picked without asking, showing a disrespect for Maori rights and ownership.

ashore this resulted in Cook’s men shooting two Maori men. His reaction to the incident is the idea that there is “nothing to be done with the people.” Cook then planned “to surprise some of the natives and to take them on board and by good treatment and presents endeavour to gain their friendship” (71). Apparently the plan worked very well as the three captives shed their fright and “became at once as cheerful and merry as if they had been with their own friends” (71-72).

Before Cook’s men successfully kidnapped their hostages they killed another two or three men and this led Cook to doubt his intentions and right to act in this way. He thought himself unjustified in seizing the natives. He proclaimed his awareness that

“most humane men who have not experienced things of this nature will censure my conduct in fireing upon the people in this boat nor do I my self think that the reason I had for seizing upon her will att all justify me, and had I thought that they would have made the least resistance I would not have come near them, but as they did I was not to stand still and suffer either my self or those that were with me to be knocked on the head” (72). This quote appears to flag another type of awareness, that of possible critical readers back home. Here Cook wrote an apology as well as a defence. He may have been wrong and he is regretful, but it could not be helped. Cook’s good intentions and his attempts at gaining the natives’ friendship were frustrated by his own actions of shooting and kidnapping them and by their retaliations that were equally violent.

On 12 October 1769 the first successful act of trade was accomplished. A group of Maori men paddled up to Endeavour and George Island cloth was exchanged for paddles. In giving up their paddles they must have made it difficult for themselves to return to shore and it gives rise to the idea that since they brought nothing other than their paddles they might not have expected to become involved in trade with the newcomers. Within a month trade had assumed a more natural aspect. Fish and vegetables were offered in return for trinkets and cloth. According to Cook, the Maori “dealt as fair as people could do” (103). Also, the value of the Endeavour’s cargo dropped dramatically in the course of one day signifying an awareness on both sides of the other’s needs.

valuable, or preferred red items and other trinkets instead of iron nails. The fact that East Coast locals knew about nails and how to ask for them was a puzzling matter for Cook when he visited that area later. News of their quality and value must have travelled ahead of Cook, but without specifications as to their use so that when they were given nails they “asked […] what they were,” to which Cook added that it was “plain that they had never seen any before” (110).

Cook’s view of the Maori which he encountered during his first stay in New Zealand Aotearoa alternates between the idea that they were ignorant, violent and treacherous, and the idea that he found them eager to learn, well aware of their surroundings and hospitable. Despite Cook’s self-proclaimed good intentions towards them he seemed unable to abandon the view that natives were second-rate humans, animalistic and simple. In European society this view was accepted and very common. Unfortunately, these conflicting ideas often caused him to revert to violence when he was confronted with alien or violent behaviour.

Beaglehole’s Defence

According to J.C. Beaglehole in his The Life of Captain James Cook, stumbling upon New Zealand Aotearoa allowed Cook to make the “discovery, quite remarkably rounded and complete, of a country” (199). However, this country was already inhabited, and Cook was forced to attempt communicating with the locals when he came ashore for water and supplies. According to Beaglehole these “potentially difficult inhabitants” (198) are the main issue Cook needs to deal with, apart from facing the treacherous New Zealand Aotearoa waters and his crew. He immediately disqualifies the islands’ indigenous population as uninteresting and bothersome, and he fails to acknowledge their identifying name, Maori.

Beaglehole thinks that these “Indians, clearly, did not regard the stranger as someone automatically to be welcomed” (199). This line of thought is not addressed further, but it cannot have escaped his notice that the Maori had little reason to befriend Cook. Also, in Cook’s journals many instances of warlike behaviour and cultural signs of war are described, so Beaglehole chooses to ignore their culture in order to stress their hostility. Beaglehole continues to disregard the Maori side of events when he refers to “uncomprehending savages” (201) who failed to understand Cook’s intentions. It seems that Beaglehole’s opinions of the Maori are more negative than Cook’s, and are more strongly put. When he refers to a “familiar pattern of native behaviour” (208) he means threats and violence.

Hostilities continued and “friendly efforts were varied with an occasional musket shot or four-pounder” (204). Trade was still carried out with mixed results. As Beaglehole points out, “visiting canoes tended to disregard European ethics of trade” (204), while on the other hand, it did not occur to Cook that “there might be current different rules of exchange, and that if he waited he might get a handsome equivalent later on as a present” (204). He feels that Cook, had he known this, could not afford to wait, or to lose the items the natives snatched from his ship, especially when instances of apparant cheating occurred. A man “had cheated the captain of a piece of red cloth, offered in exchange for a dog-skin cloak” (201) before.

“On the whole, after a bad beginning, he had managed to get on well with them” (223). With this sentence Beaglehole ends Cook’s visit to New Zealand Aotearoa and the Maori. That seems to be simply untrue. Throughout his report of the Endeavour’s travels a rare few friendly meetings are mentioned. There was Anaura Bay, where they spent “a useful five days” (202), and other peaceful places. In that respect Cook’s good intentions and attempts at peaceful contacts were not a complete failure. Nevertheless, in The Life of Captain James Cook Beaglehole presents a biased view in stressing the instances of hostilities, and blaming not Cook but the native ‘Indians’ or ‘savages’ for these.

Salmond’s Account of Judgement and Change

notion of how Cook was willing to use violence when deemed necessary, but could also be comfortable with the understanding that the Maori needed to exert force in order to remain in control of their land. Of course, the Maori would then be the enemy in militaristic terms.

To Salmond, and me, it remains a puzzle how Cook reconciled such military ethics with the Enlightenment ideas that he and many of his guests aboard propagated. Salmond marks this contradiction but does not further address it. It would seem that Cook is not just phlegmatic in his views, for it must be pragmatism that leads him to say one thing and do the other. Possibly Cook is not as enlightened as he claims to be, or his need to remain in control of the situations in which he is faced with an unknown people is stronger than any noble thoughts.

When Salmond summarizes Cook’s impressions of Maori she reveals his still benign feelings towards the Maori: They have similar religious principles to both the George Islanders and to Europeans, they respect their king and elders like Europeans, and they eat their enemies. This last example of a very liberal-minded Cook deals with cannibalism and the judgements surrounding this practice. According to Salmond Cook felt that “Maori were honourable people with ‘few Vices’ and that cannibalism was simply a matter of custom” (128). Cook receives praise for his liberalism and open-mindedness in her text, since such views go against British popular culture and even against his own crew’s opinions at that time.

Further comments Salmond has on Cook’s judgement are, for instance, the claim that almost all of the wrongs Maori committed against Cook were a direct result of his inability to comprehend and comply with Maori customs and rituals. When trade became complicated and Maori were believed to cheat Salmond claims that such behaviour was merely “taunting for failing to follow ritual” (129), meaning that the Maori punished Cook for not knowing how to behave. Separating Maori from their tribe or killing a man on enemy ground were ‘tapu,’ or forbidden acts, so a reluctance to retrieve these living or dead Maori did not signal an unloving nature. Salmond claims that Cook should not judge the Maori since he knew so little about their culture. By pointing out the different views Maori had on cannibalism and utu, or retribution, Salmond concludes that although Cook may have been well-meaning he was also unknowing.

to trade, depleted their stocks and replaced these with inedible trinkets. Disease and death through bacteria, or bullets, caused a reduction of the number of people in one tribe making them easier targets for others. Even the simple, ceremonial erection of a pole which Cook performed to claim the land for queen and country could lead to a tapu, which meant that to the Maori the land had lost its sacredness and received a ban. Ultimately, this resulted in the loss of land for a tribe.

In Salmond’s book it becomes clear that although first encounters were brief and often seasonally restricted because of the summer harvest on the coast, both Cook and the Maori were also suspicious, cautious, and unfortunately, violent towards each other. When Cook left the Maori were no longer unaffected. Change was undeniable and irrevocable, and Salmond concludes that many Maori tribes had to completely review their experiences and expectations of the world after Cook and might have been very relieved when he sailed away (155).

Belich’s Story of Discovery and Survival

James Belich’s book Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders: From Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century deals extensively with Maori culture and the reactions Maori showed when meeting Cook and his crew in light of that culture. Interestingly, also Cook’s mythification becomes a topic of its own. Belich uses grand words calling the Maori response to European expansion a “great survival story of modern times” (115). Maori and European explorers had “militaristic encounter rituals, salutes of cannon and haka, and it was a while before each learned the other intended to warn enemies rather than make them” (123). Cook was forced to deal with such issues, and whether successfully or not, on several occasions contact was established. The fact that the Maori often lived to tell the tale reveals to Belich their ability to recognise and surpass a force with technological and military advantages which was often believed to be divine.

Here Belich marks a Maori line of thinking by pointing out that they felt the divine and humanity were not so far removed from each other. Their gods are also their ancestors, which links humans to gods. Another example of this kind of conduct towards higher beings is found in the story which Belich relates of a Maori chief who on first contact dowsed Captain Cook with a bucket of water to test his divinity. Cook was “suspected of divinity” because he smoked a pipe (110). To test this hypothesis he wanted to see if the sacred fire could be put out. Such extraordinary events paint an entirely different picture of first contact than was usually assumed at the time, and Belich points out that throughout history the accepted view was, “the ship arrives, the shore sits and waits” (117). On the contrary says Belich, “discovery was mutual” (117).

Things and thoughts, goods and ideas, were going both ways. Trade consisted not only of commodities such as food, trinkets and iron, but also of Maori services, such as guiding and housing, and sometimes sexual services. Cook also tried to oblige the Maori population by attempting to acclimatise plants and animals, but Belich points out that most of these attempts failed miserably because Maori “lacked knowledge of, and interest in, them” (145). An abundance in goods also attracted thievery, however, and Belich clearly finds fault with Cook in this respect stating that “the bourgeois Cook took an especially hard line on theft” (123) and that he developed a “nasty habit of cutting the ears of petty thieves” (122).

Punishments are only one of the issues that put “feet of clay” on Cook (122). Belich compares the French represented by Captain Jean de Surville and the British represented by Captain James Cook. De Surville did not kill any Maori, while Cook killed several, which according to Belich unfavourably compares Cook to de Surville both in practice and principle. Belich regrets that “there is little doubt that Cook has been emphasised to the unfair exclusion of the massive French contribution to European knowledge of New Zealand” (122). Cook was emphasised over other adventurers, and also mythified in the eyes of the European immigrants.

Belich points out telling tales of an Endeavour wrecked in Dusky Sound in 1795 claiming it was Cook’s Endeavour come home to die (122).

Some aspects of Cook’s acclaim are justified, however, and Belich ranks him first among his colleagues. For while the “Anglicising of New Zealand is the larger shadow of a large reality – it needs pruning, not uprooting” (121). Belich also finds Cook excelled in professionalism, the virtue of stubbornness and determination, largeness of spirit, and quiet pragmatism (120-122). As he says, in the end, “Cook found better than his predecessors and contemporaries, investigated more thoroughly and carefully, and he and his associates told better” (122). In short, Belich’s conclusion that Cook’s journals contributed to his and England’s claim to the discovery of New Zealand Aotearoa seems accurate, if only for the fact that it is his arrival which is discussed here.

An Oral Culture Retells

How the many tribes of native people now called Maori interpreted their first contacts with Cook and his crew is something of a challenge to determine. The historical narrative that developed over time covers much ground but has no clear starting-point, like the exact moment of arrival or Cook’s journals. An oral culture allowed for stories and interpretations to survive in a way that takes away much of the dry, clean-cut event, while preserving its atmosphere, purpose and colourful detail in the retelling of it. The heroic and mythological stories surrounding James Cook’s visits to New Zealand Aotearoa must also be seen in such a light.

Because there are so few written records, especially by Maori writers, of this period, much of what is written here has been retold many times and throughout generations. Furthermore, when Maori accounts of Cook’s arrival were written down it was often done by European immigrants. Nonetheless, these accounts are part of the oral culture and history of the Maori. Thus, many versions of the arrival of Cook and his ship exist. In one the ship is believed to be a floating island, and in another its “billowing sails” (Horwitz 104) are the wings of a giant bird while the smaller boats used to row ashore are its fledglings. But most of all Maori stories focus on the figure of Captain Cook. Their ancestors had met him, and he and his ship were connections to a new world, creating a significant inheritance.

(quoted in King, Maori 57). Whether Patuone truly recalled Cook’s arrival and not Captain Marsden’s visit, forty-five years later, remains unclear, but there is a vivid account by, supposedly, Patuone in both John White’s Ancient History of the Maori and C.O. Davis’ The Life and Times of Patuone. He is, for instance, the only Maori known to have used the word “maitai” (Te Ao Hou 14), which is a name for Pakeha referring to the iron which the visitors brought with them.

Normally Europeans were referred to as tupua signifying a supernatural being, or as William’s Dictionary defines it as “goblin, demon, object of terror.” Patuone also calls them thus, indicating his and the Maori’s unfamiliarity with these foreigners. He speaks of the ship’s arrival and his father and other members of the tribe checking things out, wary of the tupua on board. They gave these tupua fish as an offering and a piece of land on which to live. By then the priests, or tohunga, decided the strangers were not dangerous and the people fed them with fern root, kumara, fish, and birds. In return Patuone’s father received a red garment and salted meat, which he gave to Patuone and his sister. “Food of this kind had not previously been known to the Maori; they found it to be sweet, and very good” (Te Ao Hou 15).

Tupua, food and land also feature in another story recorded by John White. Te Horeta te Taniwha of Ngati Whanaunga was, like Patuone, a boy when Cook visited Mercury Bay in 1769 and told of his encounter with the Captain on numerous occasions. Te Horeta’s tribe came over the range from Coromandel Harbour and were in the bay for the season to garden and so were able to witness the ship’s arrival. The old men of the tribe deemed the ship an atua, a god, and the people on board must be tupua since they rowed ashore with their backs to the bow of the boat, so their eyes were at the back of their heads.

Conclusion

As the accounts of two Maori men show, the natives of New Zealand Aotearoa were not hostile towards the newly arrived ship and its crew. It is also safe to say that Cook was not violently disposed towards them, at least not in the accounts that survived in the two men’s tribes and in texts produced by Europeans. The significance that Cook’s arrival had for the Maori was massive, however brutal some encounters turned out. For the Maori the world had become much larger and soon their lands would become decidedly smaller. In their stories and in their history the white man entered and never left.

Both James Cook’s own journals and J.C. Beaglehole’s account of Cook’s travels form a reflection of the times and circumstances in which they were written. Cook had to write informatively, while keeping in mind his employers’ and his own interests. He wanted to treat the natives he met with dignity, but he did not want to be considered lenient either. He chides and praises himself for his actions, but with measure. Beaglehole’s biography of Cook similarly criticises its subject mildly and criticism is always followed by an excuse or mitigating circumstances. Cook was supposed to be the hero, and Beaglehole made sure he looked the part.

Chapter Two

The Arrival on the Coast:

First Contact and Colonialism

Introduction

In this second chapter I discuss how these two very different texts by Maori authors, Ihimaera’s novel and Sullivan’s poem, intersect. And more importantly, I analyse these texts’ references to Captain Cook’s first arrival on the islands and his first contacts with the Maori population. I will attempt to formulate how Witi Ihimaera’s Sky Dancer and Robert Sullivan’s Captain Cook in the Underworld fit in the historical framework which was dealt with in the first chapter, and in how far these texts deal with Cook’s arrival, contact between Cook and the Maori, and consequent Maori and Pakeha relations.

Apart from the historical and cultural context of literature and its ideology, for scholars content and form are two vital principles also. Whereas the contents of Sky Dancer and Captain Cook in the Underworld are of most interest in this chapter, the form of these texts is worth noting. Their packaging of poetry and prose contribute greatly to the atmosphere and tonality of the texts. Also, while the forms of novel and poem are Western genres, their topic matter and concepts of culture are Maori, thus giving content rooted in Maori culture a Western shape. Thus, in poetry, which is linked to the spoken word more, and in the novel, the Maori oral tradition is introduced.

made by everyone of importance within the tribe in, for instance, decision-making. Moereover, Ihimaera includes asides and exclamations throughout his novel. These insertions resemble the form of storytelling and allow for an interaction with the reader. The question and answer style of “[a]nd was the mother pouakai angry? Was she what!” (334) creates the idea of a storyteller spicing up the action, intensifying the suspense.

The poetry Sullivan has composed in Captain Cook in the Underworld is already closer to orality by its nature of spoken words. Poetry, more than any other form of text, is meant to be read aloud. In Sullivan’s poem, which was originally a libretto commissioned by the Orpheus Choir of Wellington to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary with an oratorio composed by John Psathas and was performed in the Wellington Town Hall in November 2002 by the choir and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the words are meant to be sung and its characters speak to each other and to the heavens often. They converse in dialogue and monologue, pointing to a staged form where characters are flesh and blood and text becomes speech.

Sullivan’s protagonist is Cook, a human made divine by the Polynesians, and around Cook revolve Maori, sailors, mythical figures and deities. Some guide Cook and advise him caution and humility, while others warn him and accuse him of acts he has yet to commit or of acts he has committed. They all have something to say to and of Cook and his colonialist behaviour resulting in a complaint shaped in lines of poetry spoken out, or sung, by its characters.

Cook’s Intentions

Contemporary readers of Sullivan’s Captain Cook in the Underworld and Ihimaera’s Sky Dancer may be familiar with the history surrounding Cook, his stay in New Zealand Aotearoa and its Maori inhabitants. As Sullivan phrases it, we now have “twenty-first century hindsight” (1). At the time of its origin there was little to do for Cook and Maori alike but to trust their own judgement and the views and opinions of that time. Thus, they acted along their own line of thinking and reacted upon behaviour alien to them. Now, in Sullivan’s and Ihimaera’s literary texts we find contemporary views reflected, especially on first contacts and aggressors.

he and his crew have after so long at sea claiming they’ll “triumph over our inclinations – model English neighbours” (32). Yet, neither in history nor in Captain Cook in the Underworld do they remain “model” or even within the boundaries of “neighbour,” since he usurps Maori commodities and land, relies on violence to enforce his will and often thinks ill of his ‘neighbours.’

Exploration and discovery are high on Cook’s agenda in Sullivan’s poem. He proclaims to seek only information and wishes to “take the Maori to the world” (41). But, Cook’s claim to discovery is quickly disqualified by Sullivan as “a lie” and as “overlooking the inhabitants with his claim” (1). This “[d]iscovery again” (16) is to Sullivan a sign of arrogance on the side of Western civilization. Although well-intended, Cook’s other obligations, or wishes, were also quite invasive. The establishment of trade and a commercial point of view were given in by the perceived abundance in goods offered by the land and its people. Cook exclaims

“Tomorrow we cruise,

row the boat ashore, hallelujah – there must be women round those fires. Heaven-sent delirium –

maybe they have gold too? Nuggets to pocket, and women to die for” (16).

Provisions and “pillars of wood fit for Athens” (19) are what Cook and his crew dream of and need. They even expected something described as “r and r” (25), which translates as rest and recreation.

Ihimaera replaces the relatively peaceful motives of exploration, commerce and scientific research, which Sullivan’s Cook claims, with the much more violent motives of greed, rivalry, conquest and annihilation. These motives are attributed to the seabirds, symbolic of Cook. Of any good intentions there is not a trace to be found with them. The seabirds are deemed to be “mercenaries,” “piratical,” and a “military nation of great intelligence” (240). Especially this last remark relates to Cook, reminiscent of both Anne Salmond and James Belich, who refer to Cook and his crew as a military power. Comparisons with pirates and mercenaries may indicate the fact that Cook would never have been there had he not been assigned to and paid for the task, moreover, the toll his actions took on the Maori was high.

to become famed and high in rank according to western standards through the discovery of a land already inhabited and by kidnapping one of these inhabitants reducing him to a toy. Apparently the Maori and their rights are of no concern. His ambition to be enlightened and benevolent towards the Maori as well as the great adventurer who discovers a new country and a new people clashes, resulting in miscommunication and violence.

Like Cook’s blind ambition in Sullivan’s poem, the ambitions of the seabirds in Sky Dancer are soon revealed to be all-consuming. Once they have tasted river eel they hunger for more and more. As Karuhiruhi puts it “[o]ne could murder for such sweetness” (48). The hunger and the greed takes on a violent and ferocious nature, which in its turn leads to the idea that the seabirds should have a right to all the land birds’ possessions including the land appointed to them by the god Tane. This is justified by the seabirds which claim a wrongful division of good food, and other luxuries.

“Why should the landbirds have been given such bounty by the Lord Tane and the seabirds not?” he cried. “Why should the seabirds be denied the incredible riches possessed by the landbirds? Such division of bounty is unfair. The setting apart of the Earth into two territories was not meant to be!” (49).

Thus, the seabirds’ ambition is fed by feelings of righteousness prepping them for the first war and a complete upheaval of the Great Division.

The sense of entitlement that the seabirds derive from this supposed unfair division of bounty appears characteristic of their nature. According to Hoki

“[t]he seabirds actually thought they had the better deal, which of course they did, but they have always been voracious of nature and always seeking to expand their ownership of all things merely for the sake of possession” (45).

A Disrupted Balance

In order to better understand the Maori view of Cook’s arrival and invasion it is necessary to point out that balance and reciprocity, or utu, is a fundamental belief in Maori thought.2 _Maori

culture is traditionally dualist, which translates into a continued striving for a balance between good and evil (as opposed to a search for everything to be ‘good’ in western culture), between positive and negative consequences, and retrieving and returning. Relationships may be complementary or symmetrical, meaning that they may be opposites or equals. Such a view informs Sullivan’s and Ihimaera’s descriptions of Cook’s invasion.

Complementary and symmetrical relationships exist in an ongoing process of union and separation. Within a complementary relationship both parties balance each other out, one being the active and the other the passive party, and then vice versa. Such is not the case for Cook and the Maori, or the seabirds and land birds, because, like Belich has pointed out, discovery was mutual and both parties have equal shares in the division of land and sea.

For symmetrical relations it is essential that equality is established before entering into the relationship, like in marriage or in friendly relations between tribes. I would like to argue that both Ihimaera and Sullivan describe the prerequisites and rules of a symmetrical relationship, but that that state is never achieved. It is different for symmetrical relationships. They are mostly aimed at trade, and are firmly based on the principle of reciprocity, or utu. To achieve equality both parties exchange goods or services; each gift returned equal to or exceeding the worth of the previous gift.

Ihimaera’s seabirds and land birds come closest to such a relationship in that food is exchanged, but unfortunately the first gift of eel cannot be balanced by the second gift of sea fish and the relationship that was restricted to the agreement on a border ends prematurely in war and conquest. With Cook and the Maori in Sullivan’s poem things are a bit more complicated. Sullivan illustrates the complete lack of understanding that Cook has of Maori culture. He exclaims that they are treated as a “free-for-all bazaar” (25) and believes the Maori are “far from equals” (23). The relationship then ends in violence on Cook’s side and theft fed by the idea of reciprocity on the side of the Maori. Thus, as Ihimaera puts it, “[m]an interrupted the Great Circle of life, death and renewal” (170).

2

While both parties seem equal it is historically correct how Ihimaera and Sullivan illustrate the imbalance that in reality existed between them, for while there were attempts at trade and sometimes gifts were exchanged, neither party understood the motives of the other. The balance described by Marinus consists of two interactive parties, and between the two, relations are continually shifting until a balance is found. A situation of permanent harmony appears impossible in the narratives by Ihimaera and Sullivan.

Yet, surprisingly, Ihimaera does introduce such a situation. There is a division between the seabirds and land birds, which results in a type of balance. This balance depends on a contentment with what each bird has been given and a strict adherence to the boundary, thus separating the birds and, in essence, terminating any interaction. It is a precarious balance, which in Maori terms is likely to fail at a certain point in time, but Western influences seem to speed up its deterioration. The link between the seabirds and Cook explains this influence. Men form the threat once the seabirds are fought off. “Like the seabirds, they eat everything up.” So, “[s]omeone always has to be here to draw the line” (342). The Maori handmaidens of Tane protect the birds and the land against roads and building projects by filing complaints and squatting on the land. So, against a Western enemy the boundaries have to be protected, and thus, Western measures are necessary.

The Great Divide which features in Sky Dancer was originally ordained by the god Tane. He realised after the birds had descended from the heavens and competition had broken out between them

“that in Aotearoa the birds would need to be given different territories in order that they could all live peacefully together.” “I will make half of you birds of the sea, manu moana, and your territory will be the sea and the coast. The other half I will make birds of the land, manu whenua, and your territory will be the land and the Great Forest I have made” (Ihimaera 23).

Both groups of birds praised Lord Tane’s wisdom and enjoyed their assigned territories. Balance and harmony was thus achieved between the land birds and the seabirds. The balance was disturbed when the border was breached and the two territories came into contact. Then expressions of envy, arrogance and greed gained the upper hand, and the division ended in war.

disruption of the balance between the two parties, but also a disturbance of the ancient harmony that evolved in New Zealand Aotearoa. Like the myths described in Sky Dancer this harmony has a timeless and a-historic origin. Things come together when myth and harmony collide in the arrival of the seabirds and Pakeha and the fulfilment of the prophecy with Venus as its starting point and the embodiment of cosmic evil.

The process of colonisation is defined by the absence of balance between the coloniser and the colonised, since the first is stronger and has the intention of overpowering the latter. Both Ihimaera and Sullivan give clear examples of such power imbalances. One of the more striking examples is the concept of weaponry. Sullivan suggests that Cook and his men have more modern firepower than they had in reality. Muskets are mentioned, but further descriptions of violence and firing seem to have its roots in the modern ghetto, or hood, with “ghetto blasters” (20) and automatic weapons producing “blat, blat, blat!” (21). In Sky Dancer Ihimaera stresses the strength and size of the seabirds that come to the battle from the future, and consequently has Hoki send a shotgun through the rip in the sky. This piece of modern equipment is intended to even out the balance, or attempt at doing so at the very least.

In Sullivan’s poem the imbalance between Cook and the Maori whose islands he visits occurs as soon as attempts at a symmetrical relationship fail and Cook invades Maori land. Thus, even though Cook has no intention of colonising the land himself he claims New Zealand Aotearoa for his king and country, which announces the process of colonisation and the disruption of harmony. The imbalance in power between Cook and the Maori population takes over. Symbolically, Cook intends to “cut these islands from the ocean like a circumcision” (19). Taking over the islands is suggested to be like cutting them from the world, so that colonisation is like the eradication of the land and any form of balance along with it.

In Sullivan’s poem the character of the goddess Venus instructs Cook and points to history for examples of harmony warning him to refrain from violence; “harmony, James, be harmonious with these people.” Venus is specific about his faults and about how Cook should behave, “beware your anger” and “remember you are the new ones here. Take my warning to heart, and not to muskets: there!” (13-14). But Cook’s emotions of anger and confusion have the upper hand and he exerts his power over the indigenous peoples mercilessly.

the disharmonious relations between Maori and Europeans. Cook on the one hand admires the “savages” and their noble behaviour, but on the other hand he wants to impose his western ideas of morality over them, and within these concepts of a western worldview there is no room for the Maori view of balance. Balance is no concern of Cook.

Apart from the scientific purpose Venus has for Cook there is also the transfiguration of Venus into a speaking and guiding goddess in Sullivan’s poem. The Greek goddess Venus leads Cook to New Zealand Aotearoa. Miracles such as these occur only in myths or divine texts, where gods appear before ordinary human beings telling them what to do. So, was Cook’s arrival at New Zealand Aotearoa meant to happen, and justified? Although Cook ignores Venus’ advice, she led him there, and thus Sullivan vaguely seems to be suggesting that colonisation of the Pacific was at least unavoidable. If Cook’s arrival had to occur it makes sense to include him and the Pakeha he represents in the Maori concept of balance. Between Maori and Pakeha a balance must be sought.

The Sacred Based on Reciprocity and Forgiveness

An underlying notion in both Ihimaera’s and Sullivan’s texts is that evil is everywhere and natural. None of their characters is completely innocent, which could accord with the Maori viewpoint that things and humans are ever changing from tapu, or sacred, to noa, or common. When evil and sacredness are continually shifting it becomes important and logical that the process of utu, or reciprocity, and forgiveness also feature prominently, forgiveness being a more Western concept which may prove vital in the process of reaching a state of balance. The “innocent slip of land” appears to be the only aspect of Sullivan’s poem, and perhaps also Ihimaera’s novel, that can change indefinitely and without the need for forgiveness.

Many references to the western concepts of sin and evil are made in both Sky Dancer and Captain Cook in the Underworld. Lust, pride, wrath, sloth, envy, greed and gluttony, the seven deadly sins, all appear to surface in these two texts both committed by Cook and his crew, and the seabirds, and land birds. Cook and the seabirds are prone to the sins of greed and gluttony, while the land birds are accused of pride. Sullivan’s Cook admits to many sins, but there is one form of evil that he abhors most. He has been assigned the role of a god, is guilty of idolatry, and fears his god. He is also trying to reason he was only at fault as a god and not as a man. He claims

my bones at idolatory. It opened my eyes, to be divine, but back to the ocean,

back to a world of brick and mortar, my broken vows” (31).

For a man who plunders the land and lets his anger rule his emotions, Cook attributes great importance to a distance between gods and humans, which seems a western attitude. Thus, he worries more about the western values he has abandoned than that he has concerns for the damages he has inflicted upon New Zealand Aotearoa, which he leaves behind.

Nevertheless, Ihimaera also stresses the importance of obeying and honouring the divine. When the seabirds lose the first battle, Karuhiruhi fears, like Cook, his god the Lord Tane. He fears divine retribution and so he builds an altar, makes sacrifices and confesses, “[f]orgive me, Lord Tane, for I have sinned. I tried to put myself above you, I tried to put myself in your place. I am unworthy of your protection” (87). Karuhiruhi tries to restore the balance. aided by the land birds who have been proud and vain and have neglected to pay homage to Tane. They are punished giving the seabirds a second chance. Thus, the western concept of sin is compatible with the Maori system of balance, in which faults and transgressions have to be recompensed.

Like Patuone and his tribe, as described in chapter one, the land birds are hospitable and feed their guests. An unlimited desire for sweet fish is what drives the seabirds to invade the land birds’ territory. When it comes to food they are “[p]athologically driven to eat, eat, eat, seabirds have always possessed appetites that could never be appeased” (49). The seabirds greed and gluttony are described as inherent in their nature. Ihimaera adheres to the Maori principle of balance and utu by keeping the balance in motion through the characteristics of the seabirds and the land birds. The seabirds cannot help being greedy, they feel they have a right to the land birds’ fish, while the land birds are naturally proud and feel they are superior and deserve to win. With a powerful god in charge, battles between the seabirds and the land birds could be perpetual.

has become noa, or common, another part of the cycle of balance has been completed and forgiveness may be asked.

In Sky Dancer an example of this philosophy is given when Cora, Skylark’s mother, burns down the bird’s ancient tree (paepae) due to drug abuse. Cora has taken an overdose and is rushed to the hospital where she is brought into a coma while the tree burns down and contributes to the rip in the sky which sends the seabirds back in time to the first war. Skylark understands that “the two events – the ripped sky and Cora’s coma – are related. Saving one will save the other” (116). Recompense for the lost tree is made by Cora as the guilty party (called muru), but Skylark has to do something too by compensating the injury and helping the land birds with their war and going “back in Time to ask the land birds to forgive her [Cora] for burning down their sacred tree” (116). Later Hoki sacrifices her body to become the bird Hoki and save Skylark from the Pouakai. There is always a price to be paid, or in Maori terms, the balance must be restored.

Sullivan does not hold Cook accountable or stages any kind of reckoning until after his death. As a “[g]host, a roaming soul” (44) Cook is forced to express his shame and regret, and to draw a lesson from his behaviour. Understanding and remorse are what Cook has to offer in return for the colonialist attitude and violent outbursts that destroyed the Maori, their lands and their mana. But before a final understanding takes place Cook offers more reasons for his behaviour than apologies. These reasons are inadequate and shallow like “we had to protect this ship,” “we meant no harm” and “just a few warning shots” (40).

Perhaps Sullivan is right in leaving the principle of utu, or recompense, out of the equation when dealing with the figure of Cook. He is a western product who cannot be expected to fully grasp this Maori philosophy. Mãui/Orpheus is content with the fact that Cook acknowledges the Maori as a people and understands that his acknowledgement and understanding come too late. Yet, in death there is not much Cook can do in recompense and the fact that Sullivan has him reduced to a “groaning nightmare soul flying like a gull of the ocean” (43) may be an indication of punishment. Cook’s soul will not be allowed any rest until he has learned.

Conclusion

the land birds and Maori is thus known to the current reader. According to Ihimaera and Sullivan the invasion will continue until the Maori draw a line and put a stop to the annexation of land. The colonisation of New Zealand Aotearoa is a fact, but the struggle for Maori rights can be effective.

Ihimaera addresses the Maori struggle most forcefully when he has the land birds state “what else could they do except continue to fight for their land, their hens and chicks, history and culture?” (271). His further ideas of the future seem bleak when the “world of the future has become a rubbish dump. The seabirds are the ones that have most benefited by this. They are the great scavengers of the Earth” (239). His conclusion seems to be that “[t]he pale Second People arrived in Aotearoa, and they brought a new way of looking at things” (122). But despite these negative lines depicting a world beyond help, Ihimaera has some hope left; his wish seems to resound when Bella asks of Lord Tane “Man whom you created has changed the order of things. Please bring to man the understanding that he needs to save himself and his world” (349).

Captain Cook in the Underworld sends out a similar message when the Tahitian islands, which Cook visited before, are taken as an example of how New Zealand Aotearoa will become. Cook states that

“[a]nother template lies

in the Western story of these islands,

well insular, well bedded, the Cook model” (20)

Chapter Three

Venus as Catalyst:

Bountiful Presence or Gateway of Conflict?

Me te mea ko kopu ka rere i te pae.

Introduction

Venus the planet, and Venus the goddess: They form an astronomical as well as a mythological phenomenon that features prominently in both Witi Ihimaera’s Sky Dancer and Robert Sullivan’s Captain Cook in the Underworld. Sullivan’s text harbours a large spectrum of mythological topics, referring to Grecian and Polynesian gods alike, while the planet functions as both beacon and reason for travelling the seas. There is much less textual reference to Venus in Sky Dancer, but Ihimaera does clearly place the planet at a key moment in the text. Furthermore, he deals with a very different type of Venus. This Venus appears planet and goddess in one and has many qualities that fit the profile of a Grecian goddess without emotion, but there is also the distinct impression Venus has no part in this western world and is deeply intertwined with Maori myth.

comfort and love, Venus was important to Babylonians, Egyptians, Maasai, Aborigines and many other peoples (Best, The Maori – Volume 2 156).

Later, in the Roman period, only one name and only one goddess would become linked to the planet. The goddess Venus embodies femininity, physical love, light and dark. Her symbol, the circle and cross, constructed by early alchemists, aptly represents her: Spirit (the circle) over matter (the cross). But one might also be inclined to see the symbol as a stylised picture of the goddess’ hand mirror, stressing her femininity. So ultimately, Venus is revered as a benign deity who rules over love and womanhood. Surprisingly, in Ihimaera’s and Sullivan’s texts this goddess or planet is not benign, but indifferent and cold, or even vindictive.

In Sullivan’s poem Captain Cook in the Underworld both the planet and goddess make their appearance. As a simple speck of light in the sky she functions as navigational tool to Cook as she did to the Polynesian peoples before him, but as a goddess she has a voice, advising and warning Cook in his actions. Ihimaera’s novel Sky Dancer shows a very different Venus. Here Venus fulfils a prophesied role as a malevolent influence causing a possibility for the events to take place. Not really a goddess, nor simply a planet, she has no voice to clarify or state intent, but it seems clear there are godlike powers to be displayed and evil to be announced.

It is likely that some navigational purpose was still derived from the planet in the historical Captain James Cook’s time, but no ships sailed solely on Venus. However, Cook could also rely on more modern navigational techniques such as latitudes and longitudes. The Pacific peoples had no other ways of navigation other than natural ‘signposts.’ They made use of the birds, driftwood, currents, strange phenomena such as ‘lapa’ (streaks of phosphorous light under water that appear only close to land; resembling the Northern lights), and the stars. Among these Venus is claimed to have been used to find new lands like New Zealand Aotearoa. Elsdon Best relates in his essay “The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori, Genuine and Empirical” of an old Polynesian rule of the ocean telling travellers to keep the prow of their vessel laid on Venus during the night (28).

Sullivan: A starry goddess speaks

In Sullivan’s poem Captain Cook in the Underworld Cook takes to sea following the morning star, which is to guide him “through the shades far/ toward the southern land” (13). Thus, it is implied that Cook navigated on Venus when he sailed south, just as is said of the Pacific peoples when they were searching for new lands. The first function that Venus has for Cook is to point him in the right direction. His first destination also deals with Venus and is of the greatest importance to him and his crew of scientists. They were to witness and record the transit of Venus through the sun; a rare event. This transit allowed Cook to calculate the sun’s distance to the earth, which would enable the making of more accurate maps and navigational utilities like the longitudinal lines. “Endeavour travelling to the transit of Venus,/ our Captain Cook’s mission to see this” (3). Clearly stated early on in the libretto, these lines point out that Cook forms the main character, and that his objectives and means form the main concern. Here Cook is subtly introduced as a literary figure, or the fictional counterpart of the historical Captain James Cook. Cook’s actions are scrutinised years after they took place, and by saying “our Captain Cook” Sullivan draws in the whole western world, not just Cook’s crew. The mission needs a witness, and the little word “our” implicates everyone is involved in it and in Cook’s actions.

Thus, Cook and his men “aim for Venus” in order to scientifically “map heaven/ and the dots beneath it” (8). They fail, but this early in the poem Cook is still determined to be scientific and factual about Venus. “Starry goddess? Bah! We are enlightened/ men!” (8). There is a note of underlying emotion nonetheless, and even though Sullivan adds “[An Historical Note]” to explain that “our orb did grace the cosmos of course…./ the crew spied her from a fort” (Sullivan 10), he points out Cook’s illogical feelings when Orpheus sings how “Venus is an orb who does not cry you’re absent./ Your Venus is a pinprick in the sky/ who doesn’t understand the science of your sighs” (11). This suggests that Cook has become too reliant on the planet Venus, attributing importance and meaning to its presence and course.

That’s all. Fate/ intervened against our meeting” (12). Cook listens to Venus, and this heightens his sense of attachment to it and his greed to use Venus.

History is changed in more than one way. Venus becomes an influence, a part of the story and a “flag-fluttering history set in motion” (20). This ultimately led to whole nations setting out for the Pacific, moving fast to make their claim to the land. From a speck across the sun, a planet on the firmament, Venus turns into a character interacting with Cook, while simultaneously being acknowledged as a goddess. Before then merely a planet with a hypnotising quality “luring these Europeans/ for a glimpse of her in a glass” (4), now the goddess introduces herself as the morning star, the guiding light, and Aphrodite. She tells Cook “to remember me as a goddess” (13). Aphrodite is Venus’ Greek counterpart, and both were revered for beauty, love and lust. However, Venus was the more powerful goddess. She was the Romans’ only goddess of love, while Aphrodite had competition.

Venus’ domain may be love, but it hardly involves romance, rather, it tends towards lust, or irrational longing. Such longing seems to overtake Cook when he admits that Venus “grabs my heart” (27), and that he “ha[s] yearned/ for Venus, my heart burnt in hellish desire” (45). An infatuation has taken hold, making him search for Venus, to follow her and both listen to her advice and ignore her warnings. In following Venus south, Cook is following her call, her voice, which is egging him on, to “go onwards, take your destiny and your fame” (11), and also to “journey for the discovery of great peoples” (13).

But Venus does not merely encourage him, she also tries to moderate his emotions telling him to “beware your anger”, and “avoid the misery/ of ignorance and sermons”, but most of all she warns him “to be harmonious with these people”, being very clear about what he has to keep in mind. “[R]emember you are the new ones here./ Take my warning to heart, and not to muskets” (13-14). Sound advice, but Cook does not heed it. Perhaps because he is too ambitious, too single-minded to act upon it, but what also seems likely is that he has become so enthralled by Venus and her prophesies of greatness that he cannot see the cool reason behind her warning. He is soon occupied entirely by the new land they find and he shows his colonialist arrogance and elation, “I’ll claim this all for His Majesty’s domains!” (15).

are fearful of foreign intrusion. She is a Roman goddess from another time and place, nor is she in any way linked to the Saxon origins the crew claim to have. So, in the eyes of the English sailors this goddess knows nothing of them, their pasts and their futures, or their navigational methods. Their own ancestors did know, and they should be listened to.

Another type of warning is given by the disease that takes its name from the goddess Venus. Because physical love was attributed to her it makes sense that the rarely used Latin adjective ‘venerean,’ which derives from the word ‘venus’ was adopted to call sexually transmitted diseases ‘venereal.’ The crew is soon called a “leprous cargo of VD” (28) infected with a disease which spread among the native population of the islands they visited and the crew itself. I believe this to be an accidental link to the goddess, and that Sullivan adequately described the crew’s situation, its actions and the disaster it brought upon the natives. But despite the coincidence questions arise. Is this Sullivan’s way to somehow punish Cook and his crew for their actions? Was it a sin to disregard Venus’ warnings and is the subsequent spreading of venereal disease part of retaliation?

Some kind of punishment seems appropriate for not heeding Venus’ counsels. For as a final insult Cook places himself and the British nation above the goddess, and up in the sky like a star. Cook’s intentions are

“to place Britain as the star of the world chorus: a star shining on knowledge, a star shining on kindness, a star shining on the crying masses ignorant of the wisdom of the West:

our technical knowhow got us here, we’re the best,” (17)

which is, to say the least, an arrogant statement. This arrogance and ungratefulness towards Venus is what brings Cook down. I suggest that in Captain Cook in the Underworld Sullivan cleverly mirrors two different subjects, Venus and the Polynesians, as wronged parties. He allows them to have their say and punish Cook. Here Sullivan exacts complaint and punishment through his text giving room for understanding and forgiveness. I believe this may well be his way of performing ‘utu.’

Ihimaera’s Planet Causes Tragedy