2017/15: Should Captain Cook be commemorated on public statues as the discoverer of Australia?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right:On June 27, 2017, Nine News carried a report detailing damage to some of Sydney's colonial statues, including that of Captain Cook in Hyde Park. The report includes the response of the Prime Minister and other government ministers and the views of some Indigenous spokespeople. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.
What they said...
'Surely we need no longer maintain the fiction that he "discovered" this country'
ABC Indigenous affairs editor, Stan Grant, commenting on the inscription on the statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park
'Trying to edit our history is wrong. Now all of those statues, all of those monuments, are part of our history and we should respect them and preserve them'
Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull
The controversy at a glance
On August 18, 2017, The ABC published on its Internet site a comment by Stan Grant, its Indigenous affairs editor and presenter of the ABC's Friday evening current affairs program, The Link.
The article is essentially a transcript of a segment televised on The Link in which Grant compares the United States' attitude to the commemoration of its history with that of Australia.
Grant argues that the recent controversy in the United States over the removal of statues honouring Confederate leaders makes an interesting comparison to Australia, where, Grant claims, we are often silent regarding contentious aspects of our past.
Grant focuses on the statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park, Sydney, which bears the inscription, 'Discovered this territory 1770'. Grant condemns the inscription as historically inaccurate and suggests it should be altered.
Grants remarks have promoted a strong media reaction and widespread debate. Commentators such as Alan Jones have tweeted suggesting that Grant's comments are unacceptable to the Australian public. Jones has stated, 'If Stan Grant keeps going the way he is in relation to AUS history and monuments he'll go the same way as Yassmin Abdel-Magied [a former ABC commentator who has since announced her intention to leave the country].
Other commentators have debated the accuracy and/or appropriateness of the inscription. The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has stated that he believes the inscription should remain unaltered, while the Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has stated it should be accompanied by a further explanatory plaque.
Subsequent vandalising of the statue and others in Sydney commemorating prominent colonial figures has been condemned by both sides in the debate.