These people may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature and may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth; but in reality they are far happier than … we Europeans.

—Captain James Cook

Like the artist’s series Undiscovered 2010, Civilised 2012 is set on a shoreline looking out to sea referencing the first point of contact between Indigenous Australians and European explorers. This series features Aboriginal models dressed in the period fashions of the four European countries—Spain, the Netherlands, England and France—whose explorers visited Australia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The artist has also incorporated text from the explorers’ writings and journals that recorded first contact with Indigenous people, like the quote above that was taken from Captain James Cook’s Endeavour Journal and appears in Civilised #1.

The artist says these artworks:

"Ask ‘what makes a person civilised?’ and suggest how different history might have been if those Europeans had realised that Indigenous people were indeed civilised. For Aboriginal Australians certainly were civilised, as James Cook appreciated. The harmony with the land that had existed for tens of thousands of years was precious, in perfect balance, and in the last 400 years, some of these lessons could have been considered more thoughtfully."¹

¹ Michael Cook, “Artist statement,” in Michael Cook: Civilised. Brisbane: Andrew Baker Art Dealer, 2012.

Michael Cook
Civilised 2012
Left to right
Civilised #1, Civilised #2, Civilised #6, Civilised #13, Civilised #14
inkjet print on paper
Courtesy the artist, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane and THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne