Australian authorities are investigating after a statue of Captain James Cook in Sydney was covered in red paint and damaged, ahead of the Australia Day weekend. This marks the second time in a year that the statue has been vandalized.
Australia Day, observed on January 26 to mark the anniversary of Britain’s First Fleet landing at Sydney Cove in 1788, is a controversial holiday. Many Indigenous Australians associate the date with trauma and loss.
The local council in Randwick, where the statue stands, called the vandalism a “disservice to the community and reconciliation.” Councillor Carolyn Martin shared with Sydney radio station 2GB that the vandals had removed one of the statue’s hands and damaged parts of its face and nose.
The statue, which was first unveiled in 1874, was previously targeted in February 2023, when it was covered in red paint and its sandstone was damaged. Restoration work was completed a month later.
Several Captain Cook statues across Australia have been similarly vandalized around January 26. In 2024, a statue in Melbourne was felled the day before the holiday, with its pedestal spray-painted with the words “the colony will fall.” The same statue had been painted red in 2022 and graffitied with “no pride” alongside an Aboriginal flag in 2018.
Cook’s 1770 voyage along Australia’s east coast paved the way for the First Fleet’s later arrival under Captain Arthur Phillip. While Australia Day remains a day of national pride for many, it is a painful reminder for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of the colonization and displacement of their ancestors.
Despite growing debate, polls show that the majority of Australians still support maintaining the holiday, even though there are discussions about potentially changing the date.
