Captain Cook Statue: Residents vote in favour of keeping controversial statue
You’ve had your say- residents have voted on what they’d like to see happen to Cairns’ Captain Cook statue following JCU’s university hospital land deal.
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RESIDENTS have voted on what they’d like to see happen to Cairns’ Captain Cook statue following JCU’s university hospital land deal.
A Cairns Post poll published on Saturday and voted on by over 300 people said the majority favoured keeping the statue of James Cook on the land purchased by James Cook University.
Keeping it in place took 42 per cent of the vote in the poll, with the next highest result being 22 per cent also suggesting to keep it around, to be used as a tourist attraction.
The remaining portion of the votes were for removing it in some fashion, with 15 per cent calling to tear it down together, 12 per cent suggesting to sell it to the government and 9 per cent saying to simply auction it off to the highest bidder.
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On Facebook, views were similarly in favour of keeping Captain Cook intact, with commentator Haley Edwards saying it was a welcome sight for visitors to Cairns.
“I look forward to seeing him every time I come to Cairns from Darwin I think he is awesome,” she said.
Other commenters suggested moving the statue to a different prominent location if it couldn’t say at its current site, with commenter Brendan Murphy suggesting it could be placed at the Smithfield roundabout pointing towards Port Douglas.
Bev Masasso, who wrote to the Cairns Post on Saturday said it could even be moved to Cooktown.
“The people up there seem to have a more tolerant outlook on the history of Cook,” she said.
“It could be a tourism drawcard like the big pineapple etc. and perhaps be utilised in the re-enactment of Captain James Cook’s arrival on the banks of the Endeavour River in 1770 and the interaction between the Europeans and the First Nations people.”
Still, not everyone was in favour of keeping the statue, with some commenters describing it as “an embarrassment”, or “a bad joke”.
“Blow it up!!! Be a nice change from blowing up Indigenous sacred sites,” said commenter Angela Wood.
Others had more creative ideas in mind, such as Jason Dunne, who suggested with a new hat, a coat of black paint from the knees up and a guitar, it could be turned into ACDC frontman Angus Young.
A petition made last year at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in the US gained 19,000 signatures in favour of tearing the statue down, while a counter-petition to keep it picked up just over 5000.
Originally published as Captain Cook Statue: Residents vote in favour of keeping controversial statue
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