Vandalism occurred against a statue of Captain James Cook ahead of Australia Day in Randwick, Sydney, marking the second such incident within two years. Vandals painted the statue with red paint and spray-painted graffiti while causing damage to other parts of it, such as knocking off its hand, nose, and a part of its face.
The New South Wales Police have launched an investigation into the incident that occurred on Friday. Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 and commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, which has become a controversial date for Indigenous Australians, as they regard it as the day of colonization and loss of their lands. To others, it symbolizes a day of nation’s history and its achievements.
Mayor Dylan Parker of Randwick condemned the vandalism, stressing that “vandalism has no place in public discussion.” He added that although the statue would be repaired, it will take weeks and lamented how the money used to restore the statue is coming from the pocket of the tax payer. The Randwick City Council will clean and restore the statue.
This is part of a much larger debate on the legacy of Captain Cook. He was celebrated as the British explorer who mapped Australia’s east coast in 1770. His coming was a forerunner to violent colonization and the systematic oppression of Indigenous peoples. The Cook statues across Australia had been vandalized, and this event was equaled by one that occurred in Melbourne on January 2024 in which a statue was painted and sawed off at the ankles with the wordings, “The colony will fall” scrawled across it.
