A quiet battle for civic representation is underway in this city, right under our noses.
Compared with the streets of the Confederate South or universities in South Africa, we might think Newcastle's landscape is relatively free of racist symbols.
But this is not entirely true.
In recent years, two such symbols have attracted controversy: the plaques erroneously dedicating the Civic Park Fountain to Captain Cook and attributing to him Australia's discovery.
As Newcastle councillor John Mackenzie's advocacy and my research has shown, the fountain's creator, Margel Hinder, found no inspiration in colonial celebration.
The City of Newcastle was, therefore, right when it resolved on July 28, 2020, to remove the plaques.
Not only did they misrepresent Hinder's artwork but, more insidiously, they erased Aboriginal peoples by claiming that Cook "discovered" the east coast.
Yet, credit for the plaques' removal cannot be laid at the council's feet.
Yes, the City of Newcastle did decide to decommission the plaques, but it never acted.
When councillors carried the motion for removal, the western plaque was already gone.
Since at least July 20 that year, only the marks of a jimmy bar remained.
While no one claimed the action, the visibility the plaques had received just six weeks earlier at a Black Lives Matter (BLM) rally on the fountain steps points unequivocally to anti-racist activists.
Indeed, Cr Mackenzie was approached after the rally by constituents calling for the plaques' removal.
Less is known about the mid-2021 disappearance of the second plaque, on the eastern balustrade.
I first became aware of its absence on May 5 that year, just 10 days after another multitudinous gathering in Civic Park: Anzac Day.
The incident went unreported in the media, and my casual inquiries to a local detective suggested that, like the first incident, nothing was filed with police.
The link between BLM and the "discovery" narrative was clear enough, but what, if anything, linked Anzac with anti-racist activism?
The first clue lies in the landscape of Civic Park.
What could be described as a "monumental axis" runs through the park from the War Memorial Cultural Centre to City Hall, forming a pantheon of sorts.
Along that path there are several markers to fallen soldiers, yet not one to the presence and ongoing survival of Indigenous peoples, bar the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags now hoisted over City Hall.
For anything resembling a permanent tribute to First Peoples, you must jump to Hunter Street where, opposite Civic Theatre, the statue to Joy Cummings stands clasping an unfurled Aboriginal flag.
You'll be forgiven if you've never noticed it. Given this invisibility, it was highly significant that in December 2020, midway between the removal of the two plaques, someone pasted a reminder of First Nations sovereignty on the most sacred of national memorials.
An Aboriginal flag was stuck above the inscription "We Will Remember Them" on the Eternal Flame standing at the opposite side of the park to Hinder's fountain.
The gesture, along with the clandestine removal of the plaques, shows that Aboriginal activists (or their allies) understand the symbolism of Newcastle's landscape.
They have repeatedly chosen it as a site to contest national narratives, whether of Cook's "discovery" or the unacknowledged First Peoples fallen during wars on the Australian frontier or abroad.
When the Newcastle Herald recently returned to the issue of the plaques, it was to relate an episode involving a curious blunder.
In March, a "well-intended" City of Newcastle employee took it upon themselves to commission and reinstate the original signage.
This time the council acted swiftly to remove the tributes to Cook, thereby fulfilling a promise made in 2020 and twice thwarted by unsanctioned activists.
Make no mistake, if we can conscionably celebrate Hinder's fountain once again, it is thanks to unknown people.
Members of the public have shown time and again that they will actively contest, and sometimes even directly modify, civic space when the messages inscribed in it are exclusionary.
As with all local governments, City of Newcastle's task is to listen and respond to ordinary people's concerns with public space, stimulating engagement with our monuments and reimagining them where necessary.
This is the goal of a current University of Newcastle project led by Associate Professor Nancy Cushing.
We believe that if we can find a way to do this that is respectful to all and empowering of marginalised peoples, global comparisons will centre, not on Richmond, Virginia or Cape Town, but on Newcastle.
