THE gap between Maitland City Council's version of events over a missing piece from a controversial art exhibition, and that of the artist Osvaldo Budet, is growing wider amid allegations of bullying, racism, censorship and lies.
Budet's display, Monuments, which is part of Maitland Regional Art Gallery's Upriver Downriver exhibition, focuses on the Maitland hitching post. It is informed by Budet's experiences growing up in Puerto Rico, a US territory with a history impacted by slavery, racism and colonialism.
Budet says he included a 60-page council-commissioned heritage report, titled Hitching Post, Maitland, because he relied on some of its research.
But the report was removed, without his permission or knowledge, and later replaced only after he pressured the council to return it, Budet said.
It was removed after it came to the attention of Maitland mayor Philip Penfold, council general manager Jeff Smith, and some senior staff.
On Thursday ( August 6) the council issued a statement in response to the Herald's inquiries saying the report was removed due to a staff member's copyright concerns.
"A council officer removed the report before the exhibition's opening to confirm that it wasn't a confidential document," the council said in a statement.
Budet says the words confidential and copyright were never mentioned to him, before or after the 15-minute telephone conversation he had with a council staff member immediately after the report was removed.
Instead, Budet says, he was being asked why the report was included, what his agenda was, what his intentions were.
"They're trying to pivot the conversation away from the historical evidence I put there, because it shows that this monument, this object, is really racist," Budet said.
"The mayor has accused me of trying to have the hitching post removed, and trying to divide the community. I'm not trying to divide the community, I understand that some people like this object. But I also understand the historical facts, and this is a racist object.
"They're trying to curate the history to be the way that they want it to be. And it's weird. The obsession that this mayor have with a child's statue is weird. It is so strange."
The report's removal has been regarded by critics as an attempt to censor the art exhibition due to the questions the report raises about the validity of the narrative often associated with the hitching post - that it is a statue of 12-year-old African American slave named 'Jocko Graves'.
That character is fictitious, the story is made up, and the hitching post is intrinsically racist, Budet says through his artwork, which includes reimagined items on which the hitching post has featured - such as spoons, tea towels, and stamps, without it, beside a hand-drawn version etched on parchment with coal dust sourced from Maitland.
Council says neither the mayor or the general manager had any involvement in the decision to remove the report. The mayor himself has denied it. Budet says he was told by a council staff member he would need to talk to the general manager before the report could be replaced.
The mayor has taken responsibility, however, for the installation of a sign at the entry to Budet's display warning people they might not like what they see, and that it does not reflect the council's views.
"Council acknowledges that this display may cause offence to members of the Maitland community who have long valued and admired the iconic hitching post statue," the sign reads.
"While council recognises and shares those views, council also respects freedom of expression and the artist's right to present this exhibition on this occasion."
Budet said the "freedom of expression" reference was ironic given the council wanted to remove one of the items on display, and "on this occasion" implied the potential for censorship in the future
"I got a call from the gallery saying, I'm sorry, but we've been forced to remove this from the archive," Budet said of the council-commissioned report. "So they went there and removed that document."
He said he later spoke with a council staff member who said it was moved because it was "detracting from my message".
"I understand that some people love it," Budet said of the hitching post. "But it is still racist."
The report, which cost the council $20,000 and was tabled in 2024, makes a series of recommendations, none of which the council has actioned.
"There has been a shift in consciousness as socially and culturally we grapple with legacies of racism, colonialism, and injustice and their often 'silent' expression in the public domain," the report says.
The first recommendation was, if the statue remains on Maitland's High Street, it be accompanied by a "reinterpretation" plaque describing its contested history, including information about First Nations history and cultural heritage, with public consultation.
The second option was the removal of the statue. If it was displayed elsewhere, it should be accompanied by "interpretation" informed by community consultation, the report says. The third option was for its removal and long-term storage.
"Given the sensitivity of the hitching post, it may be considered for removal from the public domain," the report says.
Once removed, an interpretive plaque could be installed in its place.
Maitland City Council said in a statement this week that it acknowledged the "Jocko Graves hitching post" evoked different opinions among members of the community.
Cr Penfold has made his views known both in and out of council chambers.
"The expectation that Maitland ratepayers should fund an exhibition that effectively calls them, and generations of their family, racist for loving a statue of a little boy, doesn't sit well with the people of Maitland," Cr Penfold said.
"Anyone's effort to remove him is overwhelmingly opposed by those I represent."
Cr Penfold says the sign was installed at his direction, "in accordance with consents afforded to me between council meetings".
He did it to acknowledge "the multiple generations over the last 150 years, who may well find it racist to have an exhibition that is clearly opposed to the council's positions be listed as well [sic]", he said.
Councillor Amelia Atkinson said she was disgusted and appalled by the mayor's intervention, and voted against a mayoral minute on the subject, along with her Labor colleagues.
In that mayoral minute, Cr Penfold invited the council to express "high level disappointment" in the decision to exhibit a display "disparaging the Jocko Graves hitching post".
That was a surprise addition to the council meeting on July 21, Cr Atkinson said.
"It was a retrospective resolution saying that the sign was appropriate and that council did indeed share those views," Cr Atkinson said. "I was not comfortable nor happy with myself as an elected member of that body being represented like that."
The mayor had the sign installed using his delegation under Section 226 of the Local Government Act, usually reserved to deal with emergencies, Cr Atkinson said.
Cr Atkinson confirmed the recommendations contained in the heritage assessment report were never actioned, adding that the council does not have an Aboriginal Reference Group, which was disbanded in 2021, or a Reconciliation Action Plan working group, which was formed in November 2020 and stopped meeting in September 2022.
