Australian Bark Shield

The history of humanity as told through one hundred objects from the British Museum in London. This week, Neil MacGregor, the Director of the Museum, is looking at Europe's engagement with the rest of the world during the 18th century. Today he is with an object "freighted with layers of history, legend, global politics and race relations". It is a shield from Australia, originally owned by one of the men to first set eyes on Europeans as they descended on Botany Bay nearly 250 years ago. This remarkably well-preserved object was brought to England by the explorer Captain Cook. What can this object tell us about the early encounter between two such different cultures? Phil Gordon, the aboriginal Heritage Officer at the Australian Museum in Sydney, and the historian Maria Nugent help tell the story. Producer: Anthony Denselow

You can listen to Australian Bark Shield online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Australian Bark Shield is an episode from A History of the World in 100 Objects by BBC.

This episode is 13:46 long.

This episode was published on Oct 7, 2010.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from A History of the World in 100 Objects when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.