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A statue of a Captain James Cook with an arm raised in a position that some liken to a Nazi salute has been removed from a main street in Cairns.
The Black Lives Matter movement led to the dismantling of statues glorifying colonial figures all around the world in 2020, prompting calls to remove the statue.
The statue is "a smack in the face to all Indigenous people," according to First Nations artist Emma Hollingsworth's petition, which has received 19,435 signatures.
“Since 1972, the James Cook statue on Sheridan Street has stood as a symbol of colonialism and genocide,” she wrote. “For us it represents dispossession, forced removal, slavery, genocide, stolen land, and loss of culture – among many other things.”
Well, I say, good riddance!