Council to seek consultation from indigenous community regarding Captain Cook monument at Edinburgh Gardens
The fate of a frequently vandalised statue of Captain James Cook should be determined in consultation with the indigenous community, a local council member says.
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A decision on whether to keep or remove the Captain James Cook monument in Melbourne’s Edinburgh Gardens could be determined by the Aboriginal community.
The stone memorial was graffitied at the weekend. A cross was spray painted over Cook’s face and the words “shame” and “remove this” scrawled underneath.
The City of Yarra will discuss the fate of the monument at next Tuesday’s council meeting.
Councillor Stephen Jolly has suggested the decision on its future should be based on consultation with an Aboriginal advisory group.
“What I think we should do is go and find out what the majority view is in the indigenous community,” he said. “I’m not saying we go and rip it down tomorrow morning; I want to find out what indigenous people are saying and make a decision from there.”
Mr Jolly said he did not support graffiti but argued the vandalism of the Cook statue was “totally different” because it helped spark renewed discussion about Australia’s colonial history.
The City of Yarra earlier said it had no plans for additional security at Edinburgh Gardens despite the ongoing threats of vandalism attacks on colonial monuments.
A monument in honour of Captain James Cook at Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North was defaced over the weekend with his head covered with an ‘x’ and ‘SHAME’ spray painted underneath.
Yarra Mayor Misha Coleman said the council became aware of the vandalism on Sunday night and the graffiti was removed first thing this morning.
She said there were no plans for additional security in the area nor any current plans to remove the monument.
The statue has been vandalised several times in the past five years.
BAIRNSDALE STATUE DEFACED
Bairnsdale Police are investigating after a statue was defaced in Howitt Park.
It’s believed the statue was vandalised using spray paint in the past few days.
Anyone with information is urged to call Bairnsdale Police Station on 5150 2600 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
PM LABELS STATUE VANDALS ‘PATHETIC’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blasted “pathetic” vandals who daubed hate-filled messages across statues honouring his predecessors.
Obscenities in red paint were sprayed across bronze portraits of John Howard and Tony Abbott, who on Saturday night said the culprits should be made to clean up their mess.
The attack at Ballarat’s Prime Ministers Ave, which honours the nation’s leaders from both sides of politics, has put authorities on red alert for further attempts to deface monuments connected to Australia’s colonial history.
The Sunday Herald Sun understands Melbourne City Council officials are closely monitoring the issue over the “immediate period”.
Guards were on Saturday night watching over the Ballarat monuments as police hunted those responsible.
It follows similar attacks on imperialist monuments overseas that have prompted measures including fences and around-the-clock security.
Mr Morrison denounced Saturday’s Ballarat attack, telling the Sunday Herald Sun, “This is as pathetic as it is disappointing.
“Those carrying on in this way are determined to divide and offend Australians at a time when we are bringing our country together to restore to Australians their jobs and livelihoods taken by the COVID-19 crisis.
“We won’t be distracted by this disrespectful and attention-seeking behaviour. The police will get on and do their job and we will keep on doing ours.”
Mr Abbott, whose portrait was branded with obscenities including the word “pig”, said the attack was an insult to those who cared for the avenue memorial, created in 1940 as a place of national significance.
“If the culprits can be identified, they should be made to clean up the mess, as well as fined, because of the disrespect they have shown to their community — a community that rightly takes pride in hosting the avenue of prime ministers,’’ Mr Abbott said.
“It’s pretty obvious that the statue topplers and the monument ‘vandalisers’ are more interested in making a political point than in the wellbeing of our most disadvantaged citizens.”
The vandals struck the busts and their pedestals between midnight and 2.15am Saturday.
The two busts, both branded with profanities calling the former prime ministers homophobic and fascist, were wrapped in black plastic and fenced off by authorities.
Tomato sauce was also poured on the busts, which it’s understood can eat into the bronze material.
Ballarat City Council chief executive Janet Dore slammed the “idiots” responsible, saying she was “disgusted”.
She said the act could end up doing more harm than good for the message the culprits were trying to send.
“I can certainly respect people’s right to protest but not by damaging sacred objects,” Ms Dore said.
“There are many, many more effective ways to engage in our democratic process. To desecrate the institution of prime minister is just so offensive to the people of Ballarat because these are privately funded tributes and we’re very proud of them. To treat them this way is just appalling.”
Around-the-clock security had been monitoring the area, in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, after a separate marble statue was vandalised.
Ms Dore said she could not disclose exact security arrangements but there would be “added vigilance” from guards and police as a result of the damage, which would be assessed tomorrow but likely cost thousands of dollars to fix.
The monuments cost up to $60,000 to make.
“For a cash-strapped local government during a pandemic that’s an additional burden on our ratepayers. And that’s unforgivable,’’ she said.
Sculptor Linda Klarfeld, who spent months making Mr Abbott’s bronze portrait and was the first female artist to contribute to the avenue, said she was upset to learn her work had been defaced.
“It is very sad when someone has to express themselves by destroying someone else’s hard work,” she said.
“When I met Tony Abbott I had the impression that he was a very nice and caring person.”
Friends of Ballarat Botanical Gardens president Robert Selkirk, whose volunteer group tends the gardens with the council, said the vandalism was “absolutely appalling”.
“All the prime ministers’ busts are lined up there — it’s unique to Australia and everyone values it very highly,’’ Mr Selkirk said.
PANAHI: HOW CULTURAL PURGE IS REWRITING HISTORY
“They’re out in the open for everyone to enjoy and unfortunately we get some idiots that think otherwise.
“The whole precinct is the heart of Ballarat. It’s the pride of Ballarat. They need to be protected at all costs.”
The attack has raised concerns that monuments across Melbourne, including those honouring John Batman and Captain James Cook, could be targeted.
NSW Police on Friday stood guard around a Captain Cook statue in Sydney’s Hyde Park during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Victoria Police said it would not comment on its security measures, saying officers would respond to any incidents “as required”.
A Melbourne City Council spokeswoman said it was not aware of any threats made against historical monuments or statues.
“We monitor public areas to prevent vandalism and promote public safety,’’ she said. “This includes regular patrols in our parks and gardens and video camera surveillance.”
Anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000
PUSH TO REMOVE, ALTER CONTROVERSIAL MONUMENTS
It comes as Black Lives Matter protests this week reignited a push to remove or alter monuments of Australian colonial figures after statues of slave traders were torn down overseas.
More than 70 statues in the UK are under threat from the “Topple the Racists” campaign, with the debate at home extending to how Victorians should handle memorials for names including Captain James Cook, Angus McMillan and John Batman.
But the Prime Minister on Thursday railed against these calls and said left-wing groups had “hijacked” public support for indigenous Australians.
Lidia Thorpe, Victoria’s first female Aboriginal MP, said it was time to reopen the public discussion.
She said monuments to people involved in massacres were of greatest concern.
“I don’t want to go around smashing statues down, I don't think that's the answer,” she said.
“We need to see it as an opportunity to reconcile our past and grow as a nation by telling the whole truth.
“Angus McMillan is celebrated and is seen to be a hero.
“What isn’t being told is he’s also been responsible for the mass murder of Gunnai people. As a Gunnai woman that’s hurtful.”
A St Kilda memorial to Cook and another honouring Burke and Wills were defaced in January 2018 ahead of Australia Day protests.
In 2014, Cook’s Cottage was defaced with messages including “26th Jan Australia’s shame” and “f--- Aus Day”.
When asked on Friday if his electorate of Cook should be renamed, PM Scott Morrison told 3AW he did not support the push. “Cook was no slave trader in his age,” he said. “What has begun with, you know, very important issues and important issues here in Australia, is now getting hijacked by the usual sort of band of noise makers who just want to make an attack on Australia and its society.”
“They’ve got to pull their heads in.”
Roads Minister Jaala Pulford, speaking on behalf of the state government, said it was important to consider preserving the state’s history when discussing its monuments.
“But (so is) also being mindful that there might be some monuments that are offensive to some members of the community,” she said.
Port Phillip Council mayor Bernadene Voss said the James Cook statue was a council asset. “The statue is among a number of Council sites and assets monitored by our security company during routine patrols.”
Peter Dutton has lashed an apparent rash of “cancel culture” in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I don’t think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history you don’t agree with or you don’t like is really something the Australian public is going to embrace,” Mr Dutton told Nine on Friday.
“There are good and bad parts of our history. You learn from that.”
The home affairs minister said Netflix removing the Chris Lilley shows, in which the comedian depicted a range of characters including in blackface, was absurd. “Removing that sort of content from online or from our television sets, I just don’t think makes any sense,” he said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was wrong to link Captain Cook to Black Lives Matter, arguing the protest movement was being hijacked by left-wing activists pushing their own agendas.
But Mr Morrison has been widely criticised for claiming there was no slavery in Australia, with many people pointing out the country’s long history of forced labour and stolen wages of Aboriginal people.
It comes after Northcote High dumped John Batman from one of its school houses in February.
The Melbourne founding father’s name was dropped in favour of indigenous leader William Cooper.
In June 2018, the Australian Electoral Commission renamed the federal seat of Batman to Cooper in honour of the indigenous political activist.
A Yorta Yorta man, Cooper was a spokesman for Aboriginal people. He called for direct representation in parliament, enfranchisement, land rights and federal control of Aboriginal affairs. He died in 1941.
Batman has been linked to killings of indigenous people and is reported to have died from syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease.
In 2017, his name was dumped from a popular Northcote park after a successful push to remove its association with the controversial figure.
After the Wurundjeri Council endorsed a name change, it was renamed Gumbri Park, which translates to “white dove” in the traditional language of the Wurundjeri people.
THE MOVEMENT RIPPING COLONIAL STATUES DOWN
Confederate monuments have re-emerged as a national flashpoint in the US since the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.
Protesters decrying racism have targeted Confederate monuments in multiple American cities, and some state officials are considering taking them down.
The navy, the Marines and NASCAR have embraced bans on the display of the Confederate flag, and statues of rebel heroes across the South have been vandalised or taken down, either by protesters or local authorities.
On Wednesday night, protesters pulled down a century-old statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy.
The 2.4m bronze figure had already been targeted for removal by city leaders, but the crowd took matters into its own hands. No immediate arrests were made.
But President Donald Trump doubled down Thursday on his vow to not rename military bases honouring Confederate generals, even as NASCAR announced it would ban displays of the Confederate flag at its races.
The rapidly unfolding movement has extended to statues of slave traders, imperialists, conquerors and explorers around the world, including Christopher Columbus, Cecil Rhodes and Belgium’s King Leopold II.
Protests and, in some cases, acts of vandalism have taken place in such cities as Boston, New York, Paris, Brussels, and Oxford, England, in an intense re-examination of racial injustices over the centuries.
Scholars are divided over whether the campaign amounts to erasing history or updating it.
At the University of Oxford, protesters have stepped up their longtime push to remove a statue of Rhodes, the Victorian imperialist who served as prime minister of the Cape Colony in southern Africa.
He made a fortune from gold and diamonds on the backs of miners who laboured in brutal conditions.
Oxford’s vice chancellor Louise Richardson, in an interview with the BBC, baulked at the idea.
“We need to confront our past,” she said. “My own view on this is that hiding our history is not the route to enlightenment.”
Near Santa Fe, New Mexico, activists are calling for the removal of a statue of Don Juan de Onate, a 16th-century Spanish conquistador revered as a Hispanic founding father and reviled for brutality against Native Americans, including an order to cut off the feet of two dozen people. Vandals sawed off the statue’s right foot in the 1990s.
In Bristol, England, demonstrators over the weekend toppled a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the harbour. City authorities said it would be put in a museum.
Across Belgium, statues of Leopold II have been defaced in half a dozen cities because of the king’s brutal rule over the Congo, where more than a century ago he forced multitudes into slavery to extract rubber, ivory and other resources for his own profit. Experts say he left as many as 10 million dead.
“The Germans would not get it into their head to erect statues of Hitler and cheer them,” said Mireille-Tsheusi Robert, an activist in Congo who wants Leopold statues removed from Belgian cities.
“For us, Leopold has committed a genocide.”
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