Protestors have been taking to statues throughout the country as part of the global Black Lives Matter movement. But a University of Otago, Wellington study has found it's "nothing new".
Looking back over recent decades, the study found incidents of people taking to statues with weapons, including an axe, a concrete cutter and a hammer.
Researchers examined all 123 statues of named individuals identified on outdoor public land throughout the country for a 2018-19 survey and found 23 per cent had been attacked at least once.
"The statue subject’s role in past injustices and militarism appeared to increase the risk of attack," lead researcher Professor Nick Wilson said, adding that attacks had increased since 1990.
The attacks are often violent, with six statues being decapitated 11 times in total and three were completely destroyed.
“The statue of King George V in Matakana has been decapitated five times. A statue of World War I military leader Field Marshal Kitchener in Auckland was decapitated, probably with an axe, in 1931 and was then taken down and never replaced," Mr Wilson said.
US art historian Erin Thompson told Breakfast history is not defined by its statues. (Source: Other)
In the study, another seven per cent had noses cut off, as well as about 14 per cent of which were were attacked with graffiti or splattered with red, blue or gold paint.
"There were crude nose job repairs on the Queen Victoria statue in Dunedin and on the statue of Earl Jellicoe in Invercargill, whose nose had been missing for a previous 10-year period. Some statues were simply left unrepaired, with the Hokitika statue of Scottish poet Robbie Burns still missing his nose."
A statue of military leader Admiral Sir Gordon Tait was stolen from Timaru and never recovered.
Statues of royalty (50 per cent), military personnel (33 per cent), politicians (25 per cent), explorers (29 per cent), and those involved in colonialism and harm to Māori were much more likely to be attacked – with no attacks at all recorded on statues of sports players, Mr Wilson said.
The death of George Floyd in the US has re-opened deep racial wounds overseas. (Source: Other)
"Removal may be the appropriate action for a number of New Zealand statues including those of Sir George Grey in Auckland and John Ballance in Whanganui, both of whom were active in the colonial wars, that of Edward Gibbon Wakefield in Wellington, who was a colonialist who was also imprisoned for child abduction, Field Marshal Kitchener, who established concentration camps in the South African War, and Lord Auckland, who was a colonial figure involved in an invasion of Afghanistan and whose statue was imported to Auckland City when India wanted it removed."
However, Mr Wilson also suggested some alternatives - citing one statue of Lenin transformed into a statue of Darth Vader in Ukraine, or instead providing "alternate history" statues beside them, or adding explanatory information boards.
"In future, society could increasingly consider alternatives to statues, such as new civic assets named after significant people from underrepresented groups. Instead of statues, we could have more memorial libraries, sports centres, parks, gardens or even single memorial trees."
A pick-up truck slammed into the stone structure, toppling it from its platform, with local media reporting the vehicle’s handbrake failed. (Source: Other)
SHARE ME