The Pulling Down of Statues Has Begun - Part 1
There is a push by some members the Hobart City Council to pull down the statue of former Premier, William Crowther. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) in Hobart are strongly supportive of Council in this regard.
The charge against Crowther is that he mutilated the body of William Lanner by removing his shull after he had died, with the view to sending the skull to the Royal Society in London as an example of the Last Tasmanian man, as Lanne was.
Those opposed to having the statue removed point to the fact that there is no conclusive proof that Crowther is guilty as charged. Crowther himself always denied the charge and all the enquiries held into the matter we unable to prove that Crowther did in fact remove Lanne’s skull.
It has been pointed out by those opposed to the statue’s removal that, ‘to tear down and vandalise statues is the type of behaviour normally associated with authoritarians such as Brown Shirts and Stalinists. This destructive behaviour is usually justified by the bizarre notion of being 'insulted' by the past…’ Hobart City Council seems to be taking it upon itself as ‘judge, jury and executioner’ in deciding on behalf of all Tasmanians today and over the past 150 years that Crowther is guilty as charged. This ignores or negates all the good work Crowther did, and was commemorated for by the installation of his statute, a statue that was paid for by public subscription by an appreciative and willing Hobart citizenry in 1889.
Opponents of statue removal and the re-writing of our history suggest that dual-plaquing is a better, more mature, way to approach contested history. By all means add a plaque onto the plinth of Crowther’s statue, or even a separate new memorial, to explain to the public the alternative historical view. The erasing of historical memory is very unwise - it is much better to educate and learn from our history, both the good and the bad.
Our readers can get up to speed on the issue by reading the following newspaper reports of the controversy that is coming to a head now in July 2022 as the Hobart City Council looks set to remove Crowther’s statute.
Media Articles on William Crowther and his Statue
The ABC’s take on the controversy - 27 April 2021
Nala Mansell and the Aboriginal perspective - 30 April 2022
Other historians cast doubt on the claims - 5 July 2021
New Clues on William Lanne - 31 July 2021
A Concerned Physiology Lecturer gets his Crowther Facts wrong [Ed. to be explained in forthcoming articles] - 13 August 2022
A Definitive Scholarly Chronology of the Controversy written in 1992 so pre-woke and probably balanced here
