A statue of Captain Cook will be removed from a hill in New Zealand following protests by the local Maori community which says its ancestors arrived there long before the famous British explorer.

The council in Gisborne on the North Island said it will relocate the statue, which was erected in 1969 but has been repeatedly defaced by vandals who have daubed it in red paint, stolen its sword, and once covered Cook in a painted white bikini and sandals.

Critics have described Cook, who landed in the area aboard HMS Endeavour in 1769, as a “murderer” and “crooked Cook”.

Leaders of the local Ngati Oneone tribe say historical records show that Cook’s crew shot nine of their people, killing six. They say Cook’s arrival was eventually followed by European settlement, which led to their dispossession and the demise of their culture.

Meredith Akuhata-Brown, a Gisborne councillor, said the council voted unanimously to move the statue, which stands atop a local ancestral hill known as Titirangi, to a museum as part of the 250th anniversary commemorations of Cook’s arrival.

She said it might be replaced by a statue of Raikaitane, the Maori chief at the time of Cook’s landing.