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- All Subjects: Republicanism
- All Subjects: Monuments
- Creators: O'Donnell, Catherine
- Creators: Suk, Mina
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Lockean principles of liberty and individual freedoms propelled the American colonists to revolt against British dominion and establish a constitutional republic. Unlike ancient republics, usually empires or monarchies, the Founding Fathers, determined to be governed by their consent instead of the divine right of an absolute ruler, set forth a written covenant to structure their government and safeguard those liberties. Conflicting views of republican democracy led to factionalism, separatism and ultimately, war. Using the war power, the victorious North would embark upon an even more liberal project to reunite the war-torn nation, expand citizenship and individual rights to more of the nation's inhabitants and set the stage for the vast expansion of rights in the 20th Century.
Public Art bears an important role in the perpetuation of public narratives in a community. In the wake of the recent anti-racist, decolonization movements, public memorials and monuments are rightly being reconsidered. Historians, artists, politicians, and activists alike are now bringing to light the social and cultural issues that come with commemorating colonizers and white supremacists in controversial public artworks. In my thesis, I will investigate and analyze three different monuments that have been, or currently, are controversial in the eyes of the community. The three monuments that I have chosen to research and analyze are the Captain Cook “Discovery” Statue in Hyde Park in Sydney, Australia, the Cecil Rhodes statue that was central to the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, and the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Park, which was vandalized last year in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Each of these monuments plays an impactful role in the communities they inhabit but has or currently is facing a wave of controversy. I will analyze the varying reactions by the public and the controversies surrounding these three individual monuments. My aim is to find that there is a common theme between reactions to colonizer monuments across the world. If there is a common thread between how people everywhere think colonizer monuments should be dealt with, this may lead to more being taken down.