Thursday, 11 June 2020
Colonial Britain
There has been a lot in the news recently about statues being toppled from plinths and frankly I can understand why people are doing this. For a long time I was proud of living in the birthplace of the great explorer James Cook but I don't believe that many of us have given any thought to the people depicted by the statues all around this lovely country of ours. I doubt very much whether the Maori people or Aboriginal people would have welcomed him with open arms. I have been reading of violent skirmishes between his crew and some of the inhabitants of the lands that he 'discovered'. My thought is that these statues should all be reviewed and if necessary they should be placed in a huge national museum. It could be called The Colonial Museum of Great Britain. Descendants of the people who suffered at the hands of those depicted should have their say in the wording that goes alongside those statues and artefacts. I very much doubt that the wording would be flattering. Schools could organise trips to visit it so that the generations to come understand better than I did just how these people gained their fame and fortune.
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I understand what you are saying and perhaps such a museum is the answer. But - I do have an issue with revisionist history. I do think that we need to put things into historical perspective and then show how things have changed and how we look at things today and why certain behaviour, which was acceptable then is no longer considered to be so. I read another essay today that brings up some good questions - the pyramids, Parthenon, Coliseum, Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat were all built by slaves - some indigenous, some captives from other lands after great wars = do we pull all those monuments down? Where does it end?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that there is an answer to be honest. I think buildings are slightly different to statues of men though.
DeleteThat is a hard issue & I wouldn't be here in Australia I expect, if it hadn't been for Captain Cook. Maybe I wouldn't be here at all? Difficult, so maybe the human race should all try & be kind, thoughtful, understanding citizens wherever we live. Take care, stay safe & huggles.
ReplyDeleteYes....Capt. Cook is under attack again in the Pacific. Sorry....I live in Hawaii and things did not end well for him here. I think we need to understand that all heroes of any kind, discoverers, writers, political, religious etc. are still just people....they may have done great things like being the first to sail right around the world, or find a cure for polio, but they still have their personal traits that we might not like. I think they should get some credit for what they did accomplish but that we can look with a modern eye and see the problems too.
ReplyDeleteIs Hawaii as beautiful as all the films and documentaries that have been made there. It must be a wonderful place to live
DeleteIt was the Sue in Suffolk. We were originally part of the PennyPinchers magazine group and then they started up a round robin letter group
ReplyDeleteAhh, I see. It was lovely speaking to you this morning. x
DeleteI completely agree with you. Colonialism and all the cruelty and greed it represented belongs in the past. These men of the Empire (and they were always men) shouldn't be mounted on a plinth and represented as heroes but removed and placed in a museum where we can learn from our past and move on. xxx
ReplyDeleteI've always said that if women were in charge of world politics there would be no guns made and no one would starve. Women all over the world would be valued and children all over the world would be educated.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Cherie. If we must have monuments to anyone, let it be those who helped make the world a better place. Too often in the past, one person's hero was another's despicable overlord. Perhaps we don't monuments to people at all. We do need better curriculum in schools to teach history from the point of view of all involved, not just the victors.
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