Statue of James Cook (Victoria, British Columbia)

Statue of James Cook
The statue in 2018
Artist	Derek and Patricia Freeborn, after John Tweed
Year	1976 (after an original of 1912)
Medium	Fibreglass
Location	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Coordinates	48°25′18″N 123°22′08″W

A statue of Captain James Cook stood in Victoria, British Columbia, from 1976 until 2021, when it was toppled in a protest. It was a fibreglass^[1] copy of a bronze statue of 1912 by John Tweed in Whitby, Yorkshire, England.^[2] The Victoria Environmental Enhancement Foundation commissioned the work from Derek and Patricia Freeborn^[3] to mark the 200th anniversary of Cook's departure on his third voyage in 1776. The statue was unveiled on July 12, 1976, by William Richards Bennett, Premier of British Columbia. It stood on the Causeway, facing the Fairmont Empress hotel, with its back to the Inner Harbour.^[1]

The statue was smeared with red paint in August 2020. On the night of July 1 (Canada Day), 2021, it was broken at the knee and ankle and thrown in the Inner Harbour;^[4] its pedestal was covered in red handprints. A makeshift statue of a red dress, commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women, was put up in its place.^[5] The following morning a totem pole in Malahat (30km away) was set on fire, apparently in retaliation for the toppling of the statue.^[4]

Following the toppling and vandalism of the statue, Ian Robertson, the CEO of the Greater Victoria Harbor Authority, announced that the statue would not return and the pedestal would be removed. Robertson stated that the statue "was significantly destroyed and beyond repair”.^[6]

See also

• Statue of James Cook, St Kilda, a 1924 replica of Tweed's statue in Melbourne, Australia
• Statue of James Cook (Anchorage, Alaska) – another replica of Tweed's statue by the Freeborns, erected the same year
• Monuments and memorials in Canada removed in 2020–2022

References

1. "Inner Harbour, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada". Captain Cook Society. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
2. "West Cliff, Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, UK". Captain Cook Society. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
3. "Captain James Cook". LandMarks Public Art. Capital Regional District. 21 August 2018. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
4. Dickson, Courtney (July 2, 2021). "Protesters toss statue of explorer James Cook into Victoria harbour; totem pole later burned". CBC News. Archived from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
5. Lambert, Steve (July 2, 2021). "Fête du Canada: Des statues renversées par des manifestants dans plusieurs villes". La Presse (in French). Canadian Press. Archived from the original on July 2, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
6. "Captain Cook statue will not return to Victoria's Inner Harbour".

External links

• Media related to Captain Cook Memorial (Victoria, British Columbia) at Wikimedia Commons