Captain James Cook | Sydney | Australia
Last week Emma
Hollingsworth, an Aboriginal artist inspired by the Black Lives
Matter movement launched a petition
arguing for the removal of Captain James Cook statue in Cairns,
Australia. The petition has attracted 16,000 signatures. In Sydney
police were deployed this week to protect a statue of Cook and the
government said it would consider tough new laws to safeguard
colonial-era heritage. Prime Minister Scott Morrison ignited tensions amongst indigenous rights campaigners last week when
waded in to the debate, defending Captain Cook as "one of the
most enlightened persons" of his time and claimed "there
was no slavery in Australia".
Cook’s statue, erected
in 1879, still bears an inscription that reads "Discovered this
territory in 1770." Indigenous occupation of Australia goes back
about 65,000 years. For first nations Cook statue represents
dispossession, forced removal, slavery, genocide, stolen land, and
loss of culture, as well has banalizes the violent rupture of
Aboriginal society and a legacy of pain and suffering that endures
until today.
