FMT:
Australia removes repeatedly vandalised James Cook statue
3 hours ago
AFP
The mayor of Yarra City says the British explorer’s granite-bronze statue won’t be replaced, fearing more damage
Statues of colonial figures like James Cook were frequently targeted by vandals to highlight the struggles of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. (EPA Images pic)
MELBOURNE: The Australian city of Melbourne will not replace a damaged monument to British explorer James Cook, the mayor said, for fear it will inevitably be vandalised again.
The granite-and-bronze memorial in the southeastern Australian city has been a favourite target of vandals, who tore the monument down last year and scrawled “cook the colony” on its surface.
It was similarly defaced in 2020 with spray-painted slogans of “shame” and “destroy white supremacy”.
Stephen Jolly, mayor of Yarra City in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, said the Cook monument would not be replaced because it would just be “damaged again”.
“I’m not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones, but don’t think if we put it back up, it wouldn’t be just damaged again,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
“It would be ongoing. How can we justify that?”
Vandals poured red paint over a different statue of Cook in the lead-up to Australia Day earlier this year.
Statues of colonial figures such as Cook are frequently targeted by vandals to draw attention to the plight of Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
Cook sailed into Botany Bay in 1770 and claimed eastern Australia for Britain under the doctrine of “terra nullius” — land belonging to no one — brushing over tens of thousands of years of Indigenous history.
The granite-and-bronze memorial in the southeastern Australian city has been a favourite target of vandals, who tore the monument down last year and scrawled “cook the colony” on its surface.
It was similarly defaced in 2020 with spray-painted slogans of “shame” and “destroy white supremacy”.
Stephen Jolly, mayor of Yarra City in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, said the Cook monument would not be replaced because it would just be “damaged again”.
“I’m not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones, but don’t think if we put it back up, it wouldn’t be just damaged again,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
“It would be ongoing. How can we justify that?”
Vandals poured red paint over a different statue of Cook in the lead-up to Australia Day earlier this year.
Statues of colonial figures such as Cook are frequently targeted by vandals to draw attention to the plight of Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
Cook sailed into Botany Bay in 1770 and claimed eastern Australia for Britain under the doctrine of “terra nullius” — land belonging to no one — brushing over tens of thousands of years of Indigenous history.
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kt asks:
Is statue of Francis Light still OK? 😂😂😂
Stupid woke vandals attacking the James Cook statue.
ReplyDeleteIt should be honoured instead.
The Francis Light Statue in Penang is on the grounds of Fort Cornwallis. The grounds are locked up at night, but I suppose determined attackers could still have a go at it.
It ever been splashed with paint before years ago , in another lication, but there is no support for that kind of vandalism in Penang.
It reflects the real sentiment of the true locals.
DeletePerhaps, there r too many anmokausai honorary white in that island up north. Likening the same attitude of this in that island down south.