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Contested Memory in an Eponymous City: The Robert Towns Statue in Townsville, Australia

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Public Memory in the Context of Transnational Migration and Displacement

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

Abstract

This chapter investigates the controversy surrounding the 2005 unveiling of the statue of Robert Towns in Townsville, Australia. It shows how, and why, memory and counter-memory occupied the statue of Townsville’s eponym, providing an opportunity for South Sea Islander and Indigenous perspectives on the past to confront white-settler-oriented official memory. Towns, the founder of the Pacific Islander labour trade, lodges in Australian South Sea Islander oral memory as a kidnapping and slavery symbol. Islander memory of Towns is transcultural and transnational, travelling across borders into Australian Indigenous memory and to Vanuatu, where Towns is also deployed as a unifying emblem of colonialist exploitation. The Towns statue retains its vitality for Islander commemorations and encourages the expansion of Townsville’s public memory beyond its white settler origins.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘South Sea Islander’ is the term preferred by the community. Historically, the names Polynesians, Kanakas and Pacific Islanders have been loosely applied to Melanesians in Australia. Torres Strait Islanders, from the group of islands in the Strait between continental North Australia and Papua New Guinea, are Indigenous Australians and, in this chapter, will be designated Torres Strait Islanders, their preferred term.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Rodney Sullivan & Robin Sullivan

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  1. Rodney Sullivan
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  2. Robin Sullivan
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Correspondence to Rodney Sullivan .

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  1. School of Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

    Sabine Marschall

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Sullivan, R., Sullivan, R. (2020). Contested Memory in an Eponymous City: The Robert Towns Statue in Townsville, Australia. In: Marschall, S. (eds) Public Memory in the Context of Transnational Migration and Displacement. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41329-3_6

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