Image source, EPA Image caption,

The spears taken by Captain Cook will be given back to the local Gweagal people

By Tom Housden

BBC News, Sydney

Aboriginal spears taken by British explorer James Cook and his landing party when they first arrived in Australia in 1770 will be returned to the local Sydney clan.

The four spears are believed to be the last remaining of dozens collected by the first colonialists.

They are being kept at Cambridge University in the UK.

Cambridge's Trinity College has agreed to return them after a 20-year campaign by Indigenous people.

Captain Cook first set foot in Australia on a beach at Botany Bay in Sydney's south, where he and his crew's arrival was challenged by two men from the Gweagal clan of the Dharawal peoples, the traditional owners of the land.

Many Australians have long seen Cook's landing story as a foundational event in Australia's modern history. However, this view is increasingly controversial given Aboriginal people lived on the land for tens of thousands of years beforehand and many blame colonisation for ongoing problems.