Image: Photograph: Toby Mann/AAP
Sitting at the north end of Sydney’s iconic Hyde Park is a statue of Lachlan Macquarie, former governor of the New South Wales Colony and one of the most eulogised colonial figures of Australia’s history.
On the statue’s inscription he is described as a “perfect gentleman, a Christian and supreme legislator of the human heart.” His tomb in Scotland proclaims him as “the father of Australia”, and he is often depicted as the “civilising” force in the colony.
However in an 1816 directive issued by Governor Macquarie stated that Indigenous people in Sydney are to surrender themselves as prisoners of war – “If they refuse to do so, make the least show of resistance, or attempt to run away from you, you will fire upon and compel them to surrender, breaking and destroying the Spears, Clubs and Waddies of all those you take Prisoners.
“Such natives as happen to be killed on such occasions, if grown up men, are to be hanged up on Trees in Conspicuous Situations, to Strike the Survivors with the greatest terror.”
On 2 March last year, activist Steven Langford was arrested for gluing pieces of paper, each printed with Macquarie’s 1816 directive, to the plinth of the statue.
At times in Australia, it seems that questioning our colonial past and telling the truth about some of its most glorified figures is too controversial, and must be suppressed.
Councillor Yvonne Weldon, Sydney’s first Indigenous councillor, recently put forward a successful motion that asked to rewrite the plaques of the city’s statues to more accurately reflect the truth.
She said, “By reassessing established narratives… all Australians gain a richer understanding of our shared history and story.”
