Overview
European explorers began venturing into the vast Pacific around 500 years ago. By then, they had developed the ships and techniques to voyage long distances across the open ocean.
The explorers set off in search of the ‘Great Southern Continent’ – a place they believed must exist to balance the weight of northern-hemisphere land. They imagined this place to be rich in resources.
The first contact between Europeans and Pacific peoples in the 1700s and 1800s sparked a range of responses, from curiosity and friendship to misunderstanding and violence. The objects in this section recall these extraordinary times, before widespread European settlement of the Pacific.