Reconciling his history: How revisiting the memory of Cook’s visit facilitated a process of reconciliation within the Cooktown community from 1998 to 2019

Reconciliation has been a political concern since the early 1990s. However, on a national level, reconciliation between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians is yet to be realised. In more recent years, the process has moved from a national symbolic movement to a more localised level. This article analyses the processes and performances of reconciliation that have taken place in Cooktown since the early 1990s and have attracted national attention. Specifically, their annual re-enactment of Captain Cook's visit in 1770 has transformed from a narrative of colonisation to one of reconciliation. This article argues that it is the very local processes of engaging with the history that has made history a useful tool to help facilitate forms of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents in Cooktown. This is most evident in the way the script of Cooktown's annual re-enactment has been rewritten and the performance expanded and changed as a result. In tracing this and other local history projects, the article reveals the ways in which a linear, yet inclusive, narrative has been created, as well as how new spaces have been prised open for telling new histories. The article concludes by reasserting the strengths of a grassroots approach to reconciling history.