Captain Cook statue vandalised again before controversial ‘Australia Day’

A statue of the British explorer is splashed with reddish overgarment and vandalised successful Sydney’s eastbound suburbs.

A statue of Captain James Cook successful Sydney’s eastbound suburbs has been splashed with reddish overgarment and its manus removed days earlier Australians observe their arguable “Australia Day” connected Sunday.

New South Wales constabulary said it received reports of a vandalised statue successful Sydney’s Eastern Beaches astatine Randwick connected Friday greeting and that officers had seized “a fig of items” astatine the scene.

The statute has precocious undergone restoration enactment aft a akin incidental successful February past year.

Cook arrived successful Sydney Cove successful 1770 wherever helium and his unit landed astatine Botany Bay, opening up the continent present known arsenic Australia to colonisation by the British Crown.

Nine years later, helium was killed by Indigenous radical during an effort to kidnap a Hawaiian chief.

As a humanities figure, helium is often associated with Australia Day, held connected January 26, to commemorate the accomplishment of the First Fleet successful Australia successful 1788.

The nationalist vacation is typically met with ample protests from Indigenous groups and their supporters crossed Australian cities who notation to the vacation arsenic “Invasion Day” oregon “Survival Day” arsenic it marks the commencement of convulsive European colonisation of the continent.

Indigenous radical and their supporters reason that it marks a infinitesimal of grief, nonaccomplishment and shame for the descendants of European colonists, oregon alternatively, the endurance of First Nations peoples.

Prior to the accomplishment of Europeans, Australia was location to much than 500 antithetic Indigenous groups with aggregate languages who were contiguous connected the continent for 60,000 years – if not longer.

Such calls person been rejected arsenic “divisive” by conservatives and nationalists, including erstwhile Australian Liberal Prime Minister John Howard who rejected what helium called the “black armband view” of Australian past successful favour of a much affirmative accent connected shared struggle, tenacity and overcoming adversity.