Unveiling Trends in the Military Statues of Aotearoa New Zealand: An Analysis around Militarism

We analysed a comprehensive sample of outdoor statues of military personnel in Aotearoa New Zealand for trends potentially indicative of militarism. From the 118 statues surveyed, the rate of statue unveiling peaked in the period following the First World War (WW1), then declined, but then increased again for the latest period (2000 to 2022). That recent period had by far the highest rate of new statues unveiled per 1000 conflict deaths, with an increasing trend over the full period studied (p-trend: <0.0001). The proportion of statues of named individuals with “heroic” aspects (relative to generic military statues), increased significantly over time (p-trend: 0.0146). In contrast, there was a downward trend over the four consecutive time periods in any weapon on the statue figure: 100%, 95%, 75% and 54% (p-trend <0.0001). Other suggestive downward trends were for display of artillery, outward positioning of rifles, and weapon imagery on the statue monuments. In conclusion, the contrasting findings from this study (indicating both increased and decreased aspects of militarism) suggest that more in-depth research is needed to clarify if military statues can be used to inform trends in militarism.