van Duivenvoorde, Wendy, Wesley, Daryl, Litster, Mirani, Veys, Wonu, Nayati, Widya, Polzer, Mark, McCarthy, John, and Jansen, Lidwien (2019) Van Delft before Cook: the earliest record of substantial culture contact between Indigenous Australians and the Dutch East India Company prior to 1770. Australasian Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 43. pp. 27-49.

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Abstract

This article details the importance of the 1705 Van Delft expedition for the early European history and culture contacts of northern Australia. The expedition sailed from Batavia with three ships under the command of Maarten van Delft and spent nearly three and half months exploring along the north coast of Australia—Tiwi Islands, Cobourg Peninsula and Croker Island. Along the way, they interacted with different groups of Indigenous peoples and possibly collected the cultural material now held in the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures—the earliest known existing cultural material collected from Australia. This article provides a detailed synthesis of Indigenous interactions with the Dutch prior to 1770 and accords the Van Delft expedition its proper significance in terms of the extent and detail of its survey and its importance in ending Dutch colonial interest in Australia. Through detailed analysis of the primary sources for the Van Delft expedition, including cartography, this study demonstrates that the expedition covered parts of the Australian mainland and Croker Island, and that Van Delft’s crews interacted with mainland Indigenous groups as well as Tiwi Islanders.

Item ID:	71084
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2652-0516
Keywords:	Van Delft 1705; Material Culture; Netherlands; Exchange; Aboriginal Australia
Related URLs:	Publisher
Copyright Information:	© Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology
Funders:	Dutch Embassy of Australia
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2022 00:29
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430103 Archaeology of Australia (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) @ 50% 43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430108 Maritime archaeology @ 50%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130703 Understanding Australia’s past @ 100%
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