Tuesday, 01 July
6.50pm

The National Library of Australia is the country's largest reference library with over nine million items in its collection, including a surprising number of art works. Yet visitors to the Library glimpse only a fraction of the collection with many fragile items unable to be placed on permanent display.

Former director of the National Gallery of Australia, Betty Churcher, presents an insider's guide to some of the Library's art treasures, which are rarely on public display. From her unique vantage point, Churcher makes intriguing historical connections between paintings and engravings, photography, manuscripts and artefacts, illustrated journals and diaries.

These are fascinating tales about the creative process and the works themselves that offer a tantalising insight into Australia's culture and heritage.

Episode 5: Captain Cook in Hawaii
The story of Captain James Cook's ill-fated final voyage to the Pacific is one of tragic cultural misunderstanding. As told through the journals of Lieutenant James King and Captain Cook in A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, printed in 1784, the explorers received a heroes' welcome when Cook's ship Resolution first landed in Hawaii's Kealakekua Bay. The story of what unfolded over the next few weeks - as seen through the eyes of 18th century Englishmen - is revealed in numerous illustrations in the journals, including ‘A canoe of the Sandwich Island, the rowers masked’, ‘A Masked Priest’ and ‘An offering before Capt. Cook in the Sandwich Islands’. But Cook's welcome was short-lived once the islanders realised that the Resolution did not represent, as they first imagined, an earthly visitation of their God Orono - and this cost Cook his life in 1779.

*Look out for a further exploration of Cook's Hawaiian voyage in next week's episode, looking at paintings depicting his untimely death.