The descendants of a Gweagal warrior shot by Captain Cook's marines as they landed in Botany Bay 246 years ago hope to travel to London's British Museum to demand the return of Aboriginal artefacts.
A delegation led by activist Rodney Kelly plan to travel to Britain to start negotiating the return of Indigenous artefacts with the museum and the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Bega District News reports.
The artefacts include a shield and two spears that were displayed earlier this year at the National Museum of Australia's Encounters Exhibition.
Mr Kelly had previously written to the British Museum requesting the artefacts permanent return to Australia.
He also requested the shield be placed in Sydney's Australian Museum and put on display to educate Australians on the events surrounding Britain's first interaction with the Gweagal people of the Dharawal Tribe.
"It is about the story it will teach the kids about our history," he said.
"The museum wrote me back a letter two weeks later and in the letter they said they know how significant it is to my people and that they would lend it to us."
A crowdfunding page has been created to help send a delegation to Britain to push the cause for the return of the items.
"I've asked Gaye Sculthorpe, who is curator, and section head of the Oceania department to organise a meeting between myself and the trustees of the British Museum."
Mr Kelly has researched the journals of Cook, Joseph Banks and Sydney Parkinson which all tell a similar story of their first contact with Australians.
"They all tell a story of shots being fired first, they didn't throw spears until the second shot," he said.
One of those shots struck Mr Kelly's six times great-grandfather called Cooman, the warrior who wielded the shield.
"Even other tribes had to wait for an OK to step onto the land and Cook's crew shot from the boat, they weren't even on land," he said.
Mr Kelly has baptism records linking him to Cooman's grandson and birth certificates and information from Captain Cook's Landing Place Trust Archives linking him directly to the shield.
He said he will be working to return the spears from Cambridge University first as their committee may be more welcoming of the idea than the British parliament-linked British Museum.
