Site of memory: Inner Harbour

Type: Contested memorial

Who or what is remembered?: Colonial violence

James Cook was a captain of the British Navy, famous for his exploratory voyages to Australa, New Zealand the the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779, staying at Vancouver Island in 1778. To mark the 200th anniversary of his voyage to the Pacific Ocean, the statue was unveiled in 1976 in Victorias Inner Harbour. The fibreglass statue is a copy of a bronze statue by John Tweed, created 1912 in Whitby, Yorkshire, England. In the past years, the violence and atrocities committed against indigienous people during his journeys as well as the many stolen cultural artefacts led to widespread public debate in Australia, but also in Victoria, BC. In 2020 the statue was painted with red color. In 2021, the statue was broken and thrown in the Inner Harbour. The pedestal was covered in red handprints and a makeshift memorial for the missing and murderen Indigenous women was erected. Today one can see the pedestal, without additional explanation.