Government resumes work on Birch Island statue

The construction site on 25 March 2026.

The government has finally resumed work on the JVTA Statue, less than three years after construction stalled.

Work restarted this afternoon, after a brief government statement announcing its continuation. Although a call for resources was made, a large amount of terracotta has been produced. President JVTA, who spoke to the Tribune today, attributed this to the amount of clay found inside the nation's borders. "We've gotten very lucky," they said. "I don't think I even assumed we had this much clay in Jonasland. My assumption was that I was gonna have to march east and quarry an entire biome."

The statue has had a turbulent history. Work on the statue, which sits atop Birch Island, began on 17 November 2023, three days after the first independence day commemorations, but quickly stalled. By 2025, all that had been completed were the shoes. The site was cleared during the Third Great Realmplex War by enemy forces, who constructed a phallic obsidian object on the land; this was removed in August last year with assistance.

As of writing, the shoes have been completed once again. Work on the legs, body, and left arm has been started. There are plans to construct a brain within the statue's head, out of wool. A progress pride flag will be included in the statue, held in the statue's right arm.

There is no estimated completion date, though the government says it hopes to have the statue done "by the end of the year."