Statue wars: collective memory reshaping the past

Abstract

In a post-colonial era of reconciliation and truth-telling, many have questioned the symbolic power of statues. The storm of controversy that developed galvanised an electric energy in which statues were damaged or torn down. This article explores the recent statue wars – the toppling and demolition of statues in South Africa, Britain and the United States, and the paint splashing and graffitiing of statues in Australian cities. Most represent icons with a dark past and these attacks were underpinned by a legacy of colonialism and intergenerational attitudes to subjugated peoples. Statues became lightning rods for social conflict. Earlier clashes over statues in Perth in the 1980s are also examined, revealing that while the statue of a colonial figure was largely untouchable despite the dark side of his history, the statue of an Aboriginal leader erected to recognise Western Australia’s First Peoples was decapitated. The article concludes with a discussion of methods for dealing with the dark history of these silent sentinels from the past.