Thousands Sign Petition Calling For Giant Captain Cook Statue In Cairns To Be Torn Down

Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for the removal of a massive statue of Captain James Cook in Queensland.

At the time of writing, a little less than 13,000 had chucked their name onto Emma Hollingsworth's Change.org petition.

She wrote: "I am calling on Cairns Regional Council and Cairns Mayor Mr Bob Manning to take action today and remove this statue. This would be a huge step forward in uniting the community and honouring our First Nation's people.

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"I urge Cairns Regional Council to listen to the people, acknowledge the current times we are in and think about what this represents. Make history and remove this reminder of this country's horrible wrong doings to their own Original Custodians.

"Since 1972, the James Cook statue on Sheridan Street has stood as a symbol of colonialism and genocide. It's a slap in the face to all Indigenous people. For us it represents dispossession, forced removal, slavery, genocide, stolen land, and loss of culture - among many other things."

The statue is on private land and was erected nearly 50 years ago.

Emma says she has tried to reach out to the owner of the private land to start a conversation about the statue's future but he hasn't returned her calls.

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The petition has garnered loads of support, with hundreds of comments saying the statue should be taken down.

One signatory wrote: "We can learn Australian history in books. There are no statues of Hitler in Germany yet we still were taught the horrible things he did without statues. Tear it down"

Another added: "It's atrocious that this is still standing! Such a slap in the face to the Indigenous Australians that have to see this horrific reminder of the genocide of their people."

The Cairns statue of Captain Cook has become the latest target for people wanting to bring down controversial representations of Australia's rough past.

Police were deployed en masse to the Captain Cook statue in Sydney's Hyde Park over the weekend and two women have been charged with vandalising it.

It comes as other statues of slave traders and colonialists are ripped from their plinths in the US and UK.

Topics: News, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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