Activists say symbols of resistance taken when Captain Cook’s men first encountered Indigenous people in 1770 must come home, and not just on loan

Almost 250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his men shot Rodney Kelly’s ancestor, the Gweagal warrior Cooman, stole his shield and spears, and took them back to England in a presciently violent opening act of Australian east coast Aboriginal and European contact.

Now Kelly is heading on a quest to the British Museum in London to reclaim the precious shield and spears on behalf of his Gweagal people.

Related: Indigenous leaders fight for return of relics featuring in major new exhibition

Related: Preservation or plunder? The battle over the British Museum’s Indigenous Australian show

... as soon as We put the Boat in they again Came to oppose us upon which I fir’d a Musquet between the 2 which had no other effect than to make them retire back where bundles of their Darts lay & one of them took up a Stone & threw it at us which caused my firing a Second Musquet load with small shott, & altho’ some of the Shott struck the Man yet it had no other Effect than to make him lay hold of a Shield or target to defend himself.

Related: Encounters exhibition: a stunning but troubling collection of colonial plunder

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