Hawaiian feather helmet
Neil MacGregor with a feathered helmet given to Captain Cook by Pacific Islanders.
A History of the World in 100 Objects · BBC Radio 4
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Show Notes
This week Neil MacGregor's history of the world is telling the story of European encounters across the globe during the 18th century.
Today he finds out what happened to Captain Cook as he was mapping and collecting in the Pacific. Neil tells the story through a chieftain's helmet made from a myriad of colourful bird feathers that was given to Cook when he landed in Hawaii in 1778. This is not a story with a happy ending. The anthropologist Nicholas Thomas and the Hawaiian academics Marques Hanalei Marzan, Kyle Nakanelua and Kaholokula help describe Cook's impact in the Pacific and the meaning of the feathered helmet.
Producer: Anthony Denselow.