Statues of Captain Cook and Queen Victoria, both serving as representations of Australia’s colonial past, were recently found defaced ahead of the country’s contentious Australia Day holiday. The holiday honors the arrival of the first British settlers in Australia and has been a subject of intense debate in recent years. (JURIST – News)
The Captain Cook statue, a century-old monument located in Catani Gardens, was sawn off its plinth and discarded onto the grass nearby. It is the property of the Port Phillip Council and pays tribute to Cook’s exploratory journey across the South Pacific from 1768-71. The statue, a replica of the one situated in England, has been the target of vandals in the past. In 2018, it suffered similar fate in the run-up to Australia Day as a protest against recognizing celebrated colonial figures publicly (The Guardian). The council eventually recovered the monument for examination and promptly removed the graffiti.
On the same day, the statue of Queen Victoria situated in the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne was discovered vandalized. The monument, funded by public subscription and erected in 1907, was covered in red paint. Both statues were defaced with the graffiti message, “the colony will fall.” (City Collection)
No specific group has claimed responsibility for the vandalism. However, the left-wing activist group, Civil Resistance Youth Movement (CRYM), released a video showcasing the statues being vandalized. The video, apparently received from an undisclosed source, included an accompanying message charging Cook as a perpetrator and Victoria as an orchestrator of genocide.
This act of vandalism comes on the heels of recent anxieties over the Australia’s Voice to Parliament 2023 Referendum, which has spurred calls for the abolishment or reform of Australia Day. Those in protest, including Indigenous Australians and political allies, attended ‘Invasion Day’ rallies throughout the country in their thousands (Al Jazeera).
It wasn’t until 1935 that all Australian jurisdictions adopted the name Australia Day to mark January 26, formerly recognized as First Landing Day or Foundation Day. Despite this, the holiday wasn’t observed consistently across the country until 1994 (National Library of Australia).