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Statues & Limitations
Aug. 24th, 2017 06:22 pmSo... in the USA, there are calls & some actions to remove statues deemed 'offensive' to some people - Robert E. Lee & other Civil War 'villains' etc...
Always among the first to pick up on global trends, Australia is now looking to its own past & its celebrated figures, whose glorification is offensive to those people who suffered for, & under, that glory
Step forward, Governor Lachlan MacQuarie, a man who has half of the state of New South Wales named after him - a river, a university, a bank, a prominent Sydney street, a suburb & several land features, not to mention a few statues. Certainly enough to confirm that either he was an egomaniac... or Town Planners don't have much imagination
But according to Aboriginal elders & scholars, he was also the man responsible for several mass killings of indigenous natives - especially when they were on land he wanted to develop, or build on. In these supposedly enlightened times, should the man be so lionised, or should his reputation be torn to shreds?
How do you feel about your historical figures? Should they still be celebrated, now that times & accepted histories have changed?
Always among the first to pick up on global trends, Australia is now looking to its own past & its celebrated figures, whose glorification is offensive to those people who suffered for, & under, that glory
Step forward, Governor Lachlan MacQuarie, a man who has half of the state of New South Wales named after him - a river, a university, a bank, a prominent Sydney street, a suburb & several land features, not to mention a few statues. Certainly enough to confirm that either he was an egomaniac... or Town Planners don't have much imagination
But according to Aboriginal elders & scholars, he was also the man responsible for several mass killings of indigenous natives - especially when they were on land he wanted to develop, or build on. In these supposedly enlightened times, should the man be so lionised, or should his reputation be torn to shreds?
How do you feel about your historical figures? Should they still be celebrated, now that times & accepted histories have changed?
