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Hamilton City Council has removed a colonial statue from its centre as global protests against racism and colonisation grow.



The bronze statue is of British Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, who killed Māori in the Waikato land wars. He never set foot in the city which takes his name.

A small crowd of about 50 curious onlookers gathered to watch the removal - a few of them cheered as the statue was lifted onto a truck and taken away.

There was no police presence during the removal.

The statue was gifted to Hamilton City by the Gallagher Group in 2013. The move to remove it comes after a formal request from iwi Waikato-Tainui on Thursday, amid a growing international drive to remove statues which are seen to represent cultural disharmony and oppression.