In this episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell revisit Bennelong’s portraits to examine how colonial art encountered Indigenous identity. Indigenous scholar Jo Rey, a Dharug woman, challenges these depictions, questioning their accuracy and impact.  

The conversation then expands to the Pacific, where Māori scholar Alice Te Punga Somerville discusses the story of Tupaia, a Polynesian navigator and artist who traveled with Captain Cook. His illustrations of first contact tell a different story—one of Indigenous agency, not just European discovery. 

What do we see when we look at these portraits today? And more importantly, what do they obscure? Join us on Unsettling Portraits to find out. 

Episode images 

Ben-nel-long

By the Port Jackson Painter, c. 1790. Watling, Thomas. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum, London.

Ben-nil-long 

By James Neagle, 1798. Courtesy National Library of Australia. 

Australian Aborigines paddling bark canoes and spear fishing 

DRAWINGS, in Indian ink, illustrative of Capt. Cook's first voyage, 1768 -1770. 

This may record the fishing party observed by Joseph Banks at Botany Bay on 26 April 1770. 

By A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. Courtesy British Library. 

A Maori bartering a crayfish with an English naval officer 

DRAWINGS, in Indian ink, illustrative of Capt. Cook's first voyage, 1768 -1770, chiefly relating to Otaheite and New Zealand. 

By A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. Courtesy British Library. 

Guests 

Jo Rey is a Dharug scholar and Macquarie University Fellow for Indigenous Researchers in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Her research focuses on Dharug Ngurra/Country, which spans much of the Sydney metropolitan area, examining key cultural sites, including Shaw’s Creek Aboriginal Place and the Blacktown Native Institution. Building on her doctoral research on Dharug cultural continuity, her post-doctoral work explores Indigenous cultural agency through the concept of ‘Living Law’—a framework of sustainable relationality based on Recognition, Respect, Rights, Responsibility, and Reciprocity. 

Alice Te Punga Somerville (Māori – Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) , professor of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia, is a poet, scholar, and irredentist whose work explores Indigenous connections, colonial histories, and the power of language. She is the author of Once Were Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania, 250 Ways to Write an Essay about Captain Cook, and the poetry collection Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised, each challenging dominant narratives and centering Indigenous perspectives. 

Credits 

Producers: Catherine Freyne and Helene Thomas.  

Story Editor: Siobhan McHugh 

Sound Engineer: Martin Peralta  

Additional production and editorial support: Jane Curtis, Britta Jorgensen and Celine Teo-Blockey 

Additional tile design and podcast artwork: Alexandra Morris 

Executive Producer: Sarah Gilbert 

To cite this episode

Fullagar, K (researcher and host), Freyne, C (producer), McDonnell, M (researcher and host), Thomas, H (producer) (2025), 'Unsettling Portraits' Episode 2. In History Lab by Impact Studios, https://impactstudios.edu.au/podcasts/history-lab/s6/ and 10.5281/zenodo.15086322