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One and a half years after Mayor Ben Walsh said the city of Syracuse would remove the statue of Christopher Columbus from its plaza, the statue again watched over demonstrators who gathered in the city’s center.

This time, community members including those from Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation and Women of Italian and Syracuse Heritage were there to protest against State Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri’s recent ruling that Walsh does not have the authority to remove the statue.

Andy Mager, a member of NOON, said to the crowd that people have been protesting the statue’s presence in Syracuse for years.

“Some of you who are a little older like me will remember in the early 1990s, when we were looking at the 500th anniversary of Columbus getting lost on the seas and finding his way to Turtle Island here,” Mager said.

More recently, though, the Resilient Indigenous Action Collective, in addition to NOON and WISH, has been working with Walsh and the city to remove the statue and repurpose what is currently known as Columbus Circle.

Danielle Smith of RIAC and the Onondaga Nation said that the process has been frustrating and tiring. Smith has had these tough, uncomfortable conversations because the only time change happens is when people talk to one another, she said. Still, even when she shows up, the Columbus statue remains.

“It just gets prolonged and prolonged,” Smith said about its removal.

Mager said that the reason for this slow change is partially due to the Italian Americans who are still pushing to keep the statue in the city’s plaza.

“They’re holding on,” Mager said. “They’re holding on dearly.”

Andy Mager, a member of NOON, speaks to the demonstrators about the history of protests against the Columbus statue’s presence in Syracuse. Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

Many Italian Americans, however, denounce the statue’s presence. Natalie LoRusso, who is Italian American and a member of WISH, said the organization doesn’t want Columbus to represent the collective Italian experience.

She added that the monument should no longer be a symbol of pride for Italian Americans.

“We all respect the legacy of our ancestors. We are obligated to honor historical truths, not myths or made up scenarios,” LoRusso said.

Smith said that she wants the full story to be told — the story of the genocide Columbus created and the harm he inflicted upon others. She said that she gets that Italian Americans in the early 1900s, when this statue was created, wanted to honor their own history. Because they didn’t really know at the time the harm he caused to Indigenous peoples and others, she said that she understands.

But now, in 2022, Smith said the statue has no place in the city’s center.

“There’s no excuse now,” she said. “You know better, now do better.”

Olivia Bigtree and Adaybria Edwards climb onto the Columbus statue to hang signs on its base before the demonstration began. Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

Hilary-Anne Coppola, a member of WISH and the emcee of the demonstration, said that Neri’s ruling is “a further mockery of the truth about Columbus and the cause he advanced.”

Smith and Mager both said that the Syracuse community must push the city’s Common Council to take down the statue. This should be an effort from the entire Syracuse community, LoRusso said, because Columbus’ impact and the statue’s presence affect all community members — not just Indigenous people.

Columbus’ colonization of people indigenous to Turtle Island led to the eventual enslavement of Black people in Africa and America, LoRusso said. Sarah Nahar, a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University, said to the demonstrators that there is an inherent connection between the freedom of Black people and the self-governance of Indigenous people.

“Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty are…” Nahar said.

“Linked!” the crowd shouted back.

A portrait of Sarah Nahar after the demonstration. Nahar wore a mask from 6N with a red handprint on it, indicating solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

This connection among marginalized people through their resilience to oppression is just what the proposed Heritage Park hopes to celebrate, the project’s website reads. Mager said he acknowledges the suffering of Italian Americans and added that no one should ever be marginalized.

“But we don’t move forward by then inflicting deeper pain on other people in order to deal with what has happened to us,” he said.

The people of Syracuse must continue to think together, act together and organize in order to create change, Mager said.

“That’s what we’ve been doing, and that’s what we’ll continue to do,” he said.

Before the crowd dispersed, they sang together a song of resistance that rose above the streets of Syracuse, high above the Columbus statue.

“We have come this far. We won’t turn around. We’ll flood the streets with justice. We are freedom bound.”

Published on March 15, 2022 at 6:27 pm

Contact Emily: emilyrosesteinberger@gmail.com | @madlehead