Clover Moore orders overhaul of 'racist' council regalia following exposure
Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore has ordered an overhaul of the council's mayoral chains after it was revealed they featured a "racist" depiction of a First Nations person and a colonial mariner.
On Sunday the Herald revealed deputy mayor Linda Scott had proposed retiring the rarely-used deputy mayoral chains after discovering them in a cupboard before an official event.
The chains contain the City of Sydney's original coat of arms depicting an Indigenous man beside a mariner above the inscription: "I take but I surrender." The same scene is carved into the facade of Town Hall.
Cr Scott and Cr Moore had agreed the symbols and wording were "racist" and the deputy mayor's chains should be retired.
However on Monday night Cr Moore told a council meeting her own mayoral chains also featured a smaller version of that offensive scene, and moved to scrap both sets of regalia.
New chains will be designed and made "at the most reasonable cost" to better reflect the council's modern values.
"There are many features contained in the coat of arms and other symbols used by the City
of Sydney that do not reflect today's values and standards," Cr Moore said in an urgent item of business on Monday.
"It is not proposed to remove these historical symbols throughout the city and Town Hall.
However, we can address the symbols that are worn by officials during ceremonial and
official occasions."
The mayoral chains are typically worn during council meetings and at ceremonial or official civic events. Cr Scott said she only discovered the design when wearing chain to welcome the mayor of Portsmouth this year.
"I was pretty concerned and quickly took the view that these chains are something best left to the relic of city history," she said.
Cr Moore said the original coat of arms was first designed in 1857, and the design was formalised in 1908, but the meaning of the inscription "I take but I surrender" was never made clear.
Cr Scott, of the Labor Party, said overhauling the regalia was "a significant event in the City's history, and an important symbolic step in the journey towards truth-telling".