Popdcast: Captain Cook

A 54 minute Aussie ramble that's worth a listen.

Captain James Cook has been central to Australasian history for over two hundred years, but his significance has often been contested. Today we join a symposium at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra with the authors of four new books about James Cook.

What is it about Captain Cook that continues to fascinate writers? He has been the subject of several biographies, and much of his life is well known: his humble origins in Yorkshire, his skill as a cartographer, his shipboard journal, his return voyages to the Pacific and eventual death in Hawaii in 1779.

Recent attention has focused closely on the detail of his life: his emergence as a writer with the Endeavour journal, the real conditions of daily life on board ship, the simultaneous explorations of the French captain Jean de Surville and, crucially, the significance of the eight-day encounter between Cook and the Indigenous people of Botany Bay.

The National Museum of Australia symposium brought together five writers who've taken up the challenge of writing about Cook, to share their views with an enthusiastic Canberra audience.

Original audio source (hht_20090607.mp3)

Podcast: Migrant Passenger Lists

With specific reference to New Zealand and the lack of lists of migrants arriving via Australia, this 53 minute talk from the UK's National Archives, will be of particular interest to family historians.

In Every journey has two ends: using passenger lists, Chris Watts reveals the benefits of using both arrival and departure records when searching for details of our migrant ancestors, as well as demonstrating how the shortcomings of content, indexing and accessibility can be minimised.

Download the 37 Mb audio file (every-journey-has-two-ends.mp3)

Photo: attended by the extant 1907 tug Lyttelton, RMS Rangitiki (1928-1962) docks at Lyttelton's Gladstone pier after a five week maiden voyage from London via Curacao and the Panama Canal.

Podcast: The Parish: administration and records

Of particular interest to family geneaologists comes a 48 minute podcast from Britain's National Archives, which gives a comprehensive explanation of the Parish system.

For hundreds of years the parish was the most important unit of local government. This talk covers the historical administration of the parish, its officials and their records, as well as showing you how you can use these records to trace your ancestors and find out more about their local community.

Download the 22 Mb Podcast

Podcast: Rita Angus - Cass (Circa 1936)

Painting reproduced courtesy of the Rita Angus estate.
Sam Neill narrates an introduction to Cass by Rita Angus (Circa 1936).

• View transcript [PDF 45KB]
• Download Rita Angus, Cass (Circa 1936) [MP3 2.6MB]

View other artists and artworks from the Christchurch Art Gallery's Works from the Collections audio tour »

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Podcast: The Uses and Abuses of History

Professor Margaret MacMillan teaches International History at the University of Oxford, where she is also warden of St Antony's College.

In this lecture, she discusses how history casts a shadow over the present in more ways than we realise, and how history can be harnessed to help understand contemporary global conflicts.

Margaret MacMillan delivered this 54 minute lecture at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Her visit to Australia was organised by the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand, and the Canadian High Commission.

Original audio source

Podcast: Solving Census Problems

from The National Archives UK

David Annal takes a practical approach to overcoming the most common problems faced by family historians when using the 19th century census returns.

It may sometimes seem that your ancestors are missing from the returns - this talk aims to convince you that, if your ancestors were living in England or Wales at the time of the census, they were almost certainly recorded and you should be able to find them. The odds are firmly stacked in your favour.

Download the 23 minute MP3 (10.4 Mb) audio file

Podcast: Emigration Records

From the National Archives UK, this 42 minute talk explains the reasons behind the emigration of some 13 million people since the 17th century.

It discusses the most popular destinations for emigrants and sources such as outgoing passenger lists, passport records, and a host of emigration schemes supported and fostered by the government.

It also features the various child migration schemes that have been responsible in migrating some 150,000 children from the UK between 1618 and 1967.

Particular reference is made to the growing number of online sources relevant to this subject.

Original audio source

Podcast: The Literature of New Zealand

The author of fourteen books, Norbert Elliot is Professor of English in the Department of Humanities at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

In this eleven minute lecture Dr Elliot refers to the following works:

Allen Curnow, The Skeleton of the Great Moa in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
Janet Frame, The Day of the Sheep
Patricia Grace, And So I Go
Witi Ihimaera, His First Ball

Download the 7.8 MB mp3 File