2 monuments symbolizing Australia’s colonial past damaged by…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Two monuments symbolizing Australia’s colonial past were damaged by protesters on Thursday ahead of an increasingly polarizing national holiday that marks the anniversary of British settlement. A statue in Melbourne of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney´s coast, was sawn off at the ankles, while a Queen Victoria monument in the city’s Queen Victoria Gardens was doused in red paint. Images posted on social media showed the body of the Cook statue lying on the ground with the words “The colony will fall” spray-painted on the stone plinth where the statue formerly stood. Protesters doused the same statue with red paint in January 2022. Australia Day, held each year on Jan. 26,…