Boost recognition of Indigenous history to protect colonial statues: report
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Hostility from the public is the greatest threat to Australia’s historical monuments, and governments should better recognise Indigenous stories, including “courageous resistance” against European colonisation, a report into a series of attacks on monuments has found.
The advice on the need for a balanced overview of the nation’s shared history followed a request by the Turnbull government last year after a spate of attacks on colonial statues of Captain James Cook, Queen Victoria and Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
The vandalism of the monuments, motivated by anti-colonisation sentiment, was strongly condemned by the federal government at the time, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull calling the spray-painting of a Captain Cook statue in Sydney a “cowardly criminal act” reminiscent of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
A Captain Cook statue in St Kila was vandalised early this year.
Photo: Chris Hopkins
The new report from the Australian Heritage Council, chaired by former Liberal minister David Kemp, found the “recent vandalism of statues portraying historic figures has brought such monuments into the spotlight and made them the focus of discussion about their role in representing current community values”.
Mr Kemp and other members of the council concluded that “respect and awareness of Indigenous issues and treatment in Australia, not just in colonial times, is vital in countering the types of political protest which result in vandalism to colonial statues as has been recently seen”.
Article source: http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2016-17/content/story/1087726.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
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