Vandalising statues

 seems to be becoming an all too popular activity around this time of the year. 

Yes, there were more pictures of a statue of John Batman that had been covered in red paint and broken. Presumably the message to the rest of us was that this man does not deserve a statue of himself to be anywhere.

Read the far left commentators and they will tell you he was a murderer responsible for the deaths of many indigenous people. Read the perhaps more balanced view of trained historians and there is a real suggestion that he was much more sympathetic and interested in the indigenous people he met. He attempted to buy the land he was interested in through a treaty with the local indigenous tribe and that is something no other "invader" or "settler" or "explorer" attempted to do at the time.

So, why do some feel the need to destroy his statue? Why is there a need to put extra security around the cottage once owned by an explorer who never actually colonised anything? 

There is a small, discreet memorial to a local man who spent many years working quietly to keep the local railway station (a listed venue) clear of graffiti and in good repair. He maintained the garden first set out by an early station master's wife and gathered a group of volunteers who continue the work now. Recently there was an attempt to damage it too. 

I asked one of the local teens why he thought this had been done. He thought about it for a moment and then shrugged, "You wouldn't understand. It's about it being there and him trying to wipe us out all the time." 

No, I don't understand. I don't understand the thrill of vandalising statues because of a different view of history - or of a view of history that we want to exist rather than the one which is possibly more accurate. History is strange. We have only been there for as long as we have. We have to rely on other people for the rest of it. 

It seems that some people don't even want that. 

By the way, should you be interested, it is said Batman attempted to exchange 40 pairs of blankets, 42 tomahawks, 130 knives, 62 pairs of scissors, 40 looking glasses, 250 handkerchiefs, 18 shirts, 4 flannel jackets, 4 suits of clothes and 150 lb. of flour for what is now a large part of Melbourne.