Stan Grant's documentary challenges Captain Cook's legacy and Australia's founding narrative

Stan Grant's new documentary, *Before 1770*, challenges the traditional narrative of Captain Cook's arrival in Australia. In the trailer released on Friday, Grant describes the nation's founding story as a "lie" and highlights historical ties between Indigenous Australians and Muslims. Produced by the Islamic Abu Hanifa Institute, the film focuses on the Macassan trepangers who traded with Aboriginal people before European colonization. Director Sheik Wesam Charkawi aims to celebrate this history and assert that Australia was not "discovered" by Cook. The documentary has sparked debate, with some, like businessman Warren Mundine, rejecting its revisionist perspective. Others, including Professor Campbell Macknight, emphasize the film's goal of reassuring young Muslims about their place in Australian history.