By Melanie Burton
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Two historic statues were damaged in Melbourne ahead of Australia Day celebrations on Sunday, with tens of thousands of people across the country joining protests in support of Aboriginal groups who say the date is not one to cheer.
A statue of colonist John Batman, a founder of the country’s second-largest city and who was involved in the killing of Indigenous people, was sawn in half, while a monument commemorating Australian soldiers in World War One was daubed in red paint and the words “land back”, according to police and local media reports.
Australia’s national day on Jan. 26 is a date of morning for many Indigenous Australians because it marks the day that Captain James Cook landed in Sydney Cove and the beginning of the country’s colonisation by the British.
Protesters were also carrying Palestinian flags, and speakers spoke of similarities between Aboriginal and Palestinian…
