The radical power of being incurious
When resisting curiosity is an act of revolution.
On April 28, 1770, the British Royal Navy research vessel HMS Endeavour made its way into a calm, deep bay on the eastern shore of New Holland. We now know this place as Australia. Endeavour became the first European vessel to reach this remote corner of the world, giving its commander, a 42-year-old explorer named James Cook, a hallowed place in the history books.
But something else happened on that fateful April day that's missing from mainstream history. As they disembarked from the ship, Cook's men were in for a rude surprise. One of them, a naturalist named Joseph Banks, spotted four small canoes inside the bay, from which indigenous inhabitants of this 'new' land were catching fish. To Banks's puzzlement, they completely ignored the imposing ship and its important-looking occupants, staying focused on the fish instead.
