James Cook is no longer on the rise.
On Thursday January 25, a statue of the British explorer was brought to the ground in Melbourne, after having been sawn at the shins.
Its base was tagged with “The colony will fall”.
A way to protest against the colonial heritage still celebrated in Australia, particularly on the occasion of January 26, a national holiday and anniversary of the arrival of the settlers on the continent in 1788.
Even if today, this holiday aims to be the celebration of national unity, some Australians, particularly the Aborigines, do not see it in the same way.
James Cook, as the first European to discover Australia, is considered to be at the origin of this colonization which led to persecution of the Aborigines.
Persecutions such as murders, rapes or thefts that the famous explorer himself committed with his crew upon arriving in Australia in 1770. Since 2020, statues of the navigator, and more generally colonial figures, have been targeted and vandalized .