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The widespread anti-racism protests that began in the United States are now pinballing throughout Europe, leading to the removal of two statues in the United Kingdom and one in Belgium with racist colonial legacies as slave masters and white supremacists.
This growing trend of erasing revisionist history has forced the Australian Prime Minister to act quickly to protect our own controversially whitewashed symbols of cultural heritage.
With Australia’s 10,000 statues of Captain Cook now already targets for spray paint and fake blood every Australia Day, the PM has been quick to find a compromise with both Indigenous community and Australian historians who take issue with the glorification of this old man who knew how to use a boat well enough to introduce disease and colonial oppression to over 50 Indigenous nations across the Southern Seas.
Morrison, whose own Federal Electorate is named after Cook, has today negotiated with Black Lives Matters activists – coming to an agreement that the Captain Cook statues will remain standing providing that a few alterations are made to them.
This decision is viewed as a great compromise by the Prime Minister, who has been unashamedly vocal about his fetishisation with the prominent colonial navigator throughout his time as Prime Minister.
In January 2019, Morrison announced a $50 million package to commemorate 250 years since Captain Cook’s arrival to Australian shores, out of fear that not enough Australians remember the brave stories of white settlement after spending six years learning about it in primary school.
However, today, Morrison has finally acknowledged the complicated legacy of the British navigator – by agreeing to the demands of protestors who have asked that each statue be riddled with Hawaiian spears.
It is hoped that these subtle changes to the colonial sculptures will remind everyday Australians that Cook’s habit of planting flags in the sand of countries that did not belong to British Empire is what actually led to his death.
After dramatically changing the course of history for both Australia’s Aboriginal people and the New Zealand Maori, Captain Cook’s visit to Hawaii ended quite suddenly when the native islanders turned his head inside out with spears – only after he walked past the tide lines at Kealakekua Bay – despite being specifically warned not to.
While Morrison has successfully ensured the ongoing protection of the Captain Cook statues, it is not yet known what will become of the thousands of Lachlan Macquarie statues.
The legacy surrounding Macquarie is viewed by historians as equally controversial, given the relatively recent revelations that he enjoyed throwing women and children off cliffs during his similarly mythologised posting as the Governor of the New South Wales penal colony.
