By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-01-24 01:39:55 | Updated at 2025-01-27 17:04:26
3 days ago
SYDNEY - A statue in Sydney of British explorer James Cook, captain of the first Western ship to reach the east coast of Australia, was sprayed with red paint and damaged two days before Australia’s national day, authorities said on Jan 24.
It was the second time the statue has been defaced and vandalised in the last year. Police said that they had begun an investigation and that several items had been found near the statue.
Local councillor Carolyn Martin said the vandals may have scaled a fence around the statue using a ladder, which they left behind.
“It’s an absolute mess,” Martin told radio station 2GB. “They have splattered paint all over it, then they have managed to get to the top of the statue and they’ve knocked his hand off and also part of his face and nose.”
For many Indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years and make up about 4 per cent of the country’s population of 27 million, the Australia Day holiday is known as Invasion Day, symbolising the destruction of their cultures by European settlers.
Many Indigenous groups want Australia to drop celebrations or move the date, which marks the anniversary of the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788.
Every year on Jan 26, protesters rally against the mistreatment of Indigenous people, who are by most socio-economic measures the most disadvantaged people in the country.
A survey by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Jan 24 showed the support to keep Jan 26 as Australia’s national day surged to 61 per cent from 47 per cent over the past two years, signalling a shift in voters’ sentiment. REUTERS
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