Captain Cook statue vandalised ahead of Australia Day

Ahead of the Australia Day weekend, a statue of Captain James Cook was found covered in red paint and vandalized, and Australian police are currently investigating the incident. This marks the second time the statue in Sydney has been vandalized in 12 months.

Australia Day, observed annually on January 26th, commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney Cove in 1788. Many Indigenous Australians view this date as a painful reminder of the beginning of the colonization of their land. The Randwick City Council, in whose suburb the statue is located, described the vandalism as "a setback to community reconciliation."

Councillor Carolyn Martin, in an interview with Sydney radio station 2GB, stated that the vandals had knocked off one of the statue's hands, as well as parts of its face and nose. The statue, originally unveiled in 1874, was also vandalized last February when it was covered in red paint and some of the sandstone was damaged, with repair work completed a month later.

There are several statues of Captain Cook across Australia, and other statues have also been vandalized around January 26th. For example, in 2024, a statue in Melbourne was cut down on the eve of Australia Day, with the words "the colony will fall" spray-painted on its base. Two years prior, the same statue was doused in red paint, and in 2018, it was graffitied with the words "no pride" and an Aboriginal flag was placed beside it.

Cook charted the east coast of Australia in 1770, paving the way for the later dispatch of the First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip. For some, particularly those in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Australia Day is a contentious holiday, seen as a reminder of their people's dispossession and displacement. However, for many Australians, it is a day to celebrate nation-building and achievements. Opinion polls suggest that despite suggestions to change the date, a majority still support keeping the holiday.