ABC - The Pacific In the Wake of Captain Cook (2018) Part 1 Endeavour and Tahiti

A rich, complex and engaging account of Cook's voyages across the Pacific, from actor and raconteur Sam Neill. Pacific with Sam Neill follows Captain James Cook's three voyages to the Pacific – from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and from Tahiti to Australia and New Zealand. Fascinating, engaging, fresh and vital - this is history … but not as you know it. It's been 250 years since Captain James Cook's first Voyage across the pacific, something that would forever change the lives of the Indigenous communities he would encounter. Revered in some quarters yet hated in others, why does he still matter? That's the question actor Sam Neill is looking to answer in this compelling series. History is taking to the seas and walking in the footsteps of Captain James Cook. 250 years after Cook began his epic exploration of the Pacific, Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) journeys in his wake uncovering stories that resonate from those times on both sides of the beach. Sam begins with a disclaimer – he is merely an actor – but the story of Cook, and the impact he has had on the Pacific in the 250 years since his first voyage, has always fascinated him. Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768, just over 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed. Visiting the islands and lands where Cook went and meeting the descendants of the people Cook met, Sam, in this 6 part series, explores the trials and triumphs, disasters and delights that followed. He takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself. Was Cook an instrument of imperial expansion or an enlightened explorer? Whether admired or admonished Captain James Cook is forever linked to the Pacific, its heritage and its future. Looking behind the man and the consequences of his extraordinary voyages, Sam speaks to descendants of the many peoples Cook met. He encounters the full spectrum from Cook lovers to Cook haters, but most of all he is touched by Pacific peoples' resilience, resourcefulness and grace. Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps, engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice and peoples. The series aired on Foxtel's HISTORY channel in Australia and Prime TV in New Zealand in 2018. Based on the book “The Pacific” by Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios.

Part 1 Endeavour and Tahiti

On the 250th anniversary of Cook leaving Plymouth, Sam Neill visits Tahiti in the first of six episodes to follow Cook's journey around the Pacific, and hears from Tahitians about what Cook means 250 years on. Through the intercession of Joseph Banks, the expedition's botanist, Cook takes on board the high priest and navigator Tupaia whose significance, attributes and influence will develop along the voyage but not be fully registered until the end of the Twentieth Century. Much as Tahiti's centrality to the settlement of Oceania by Polynesians, people of the ocean, was not fully understood till recently. Sam encounters ardent enthusiasts and practitioners of Tahiti's vibrant culture. Some of the traditions are old, some new and when lost, he learns, the Tahitians are happy to make them up.

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