A poster featuring alleged Bondi Beach shooter Naveed Akram with the word ‘Aussie’ has been lashed as ‘gutless’ by the artist whose design was ripped off by copycats.
Akram is currently facing 59 charges, including 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of wounding with intent to murder, after he and his father allegedly opened fire on a crowd celebrating Hanukkah by the Sea on December 14.
Almost two months later, about 40 posters have been seen around Melbourne showing Akram on the day of the incident bearing the word ‘Aussie’.
The images are poor copies of the iconic work by high-profile artist Peter Drew, and use the same font and colour palette.
Mr Drew is best-known for his 2016 poster series that highlighted diverse figures who are Australian as a response to rising anti-immigration sentiment.
The posters feature Afghan cameleer Monga Khan, a young Jewish boy, and, more recently, the great-grandfather of NSW Nationals leader Gurmesh Singh.
Mr Drew criticised the copycats for taking his design and twisting it to convey a message fundamentally opposed to his project.
‘l think it’s pretty gutless… fundamentally the difference between me and them is that I believe in Australia and I love Australia,’ he told 3AW Drive host Jacqui Felgate.
‘I think they don’t believe in Australia, and they can’t make a positive poster about Australia. They can only make these negative posters that nobody wants.
‘I challenge them to make something positive that people actually want, and I challenge them to put their name to it as well, if they have any courage.’
Felgate asked if Mr Drew knew who the imitators might be.
‘I don’t know their names, and I wouldn’t platform them, but it’s just these right wing influencers that… think of themselves as nationalists – and I don’t,’ he said.
‘I’m a patriot. I think most of the people listening are patriots. People who love Australia, we love it the way it is – and we want to keep it being a welcoming, peaceful place.
‘But they have a different idea of Australia, which is based on a fantasy of Australia that never was.
‘The photographs in my posters are of people that lived here 100 years ago. They lived here. They worked here. They died here. Some of them were born here as well. And if they’re not Aussies, then who are we to say what is.’
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece told 3AW the posters of Akram ‘defy comprehension’, adding: ‘It is sick.’
‘This has been clearly a deliberate and organised exercise to shock and spread hate, and we are not going to tolerate it at the City of Melbourne,’ he said.
City of Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly confirmed he had asked council officers to take the poster on Punt Road down immediately.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion told The Age the posters were ‘devastating and disrespectful’ to the Bondi victims and to Mr Drew.
‘The Bondi terrorists will fade into history and their names will be forgotten,’ he said.
‘The people who will be remembered are the victims, the survivors, and the heroes who rushed in to help. They represent the true Aussie spirit.’
It is not the first time that Mr Drew’s work has been appropriated.
Copycat posters emerged in 2016 showing convicted sex offender Rolf Harris and the Melbourne teenager who joined ISIS, Jake Bilardi.
CRE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15525005/Naveed-Akram-posters-Melbourne.html