The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage has released the Aboriginal and Dual Naming Guidelines for Naming Western Australian Geographic Features and Places.
Developed in consultation with Local Governments, Aboriginal organisations and other key stakeholders, the Guidelines give communities across Western Australia the tools to identify opportunities for Aboriginal place naming and how to implement them.
Launching the Guidelines, Minister for Lands, Ben Wyatt said he hoped they would help preserve and reawaken local languages.
“The emphasis of the Guidelines is early engagement and consultation with the traditional owners, acknowledging the importance of their connection to Country,” Mr Wyatt said.
“Capturing and recording the original place names and their relationship to geographical features and places recognises, and will help preserve, Aboriginal cultural heritage.”
He said the release of the Guidelines coincided with NAIDOC Week, which this year recognised the continuous connection of Aboriginal people to language and Country.
“All Australians share a special relationship to the land. The names we give to places help to convey their significance, sense of history and identity,” Mr Wyatt said.
“We want to make sure that reawakening local languages through place names is as easy as possible. These Guidelines will help inspire Local Governments to continue to embrace local language names throughout Western Australia.”
Mr Wyatt also announced the renaming of Lake Disappointment (pictured) to Kumpupintil Lake, an Aboriginal name that describes how the lake was made and its links to a Martu creation story where Martu warriors fought mighty giants in an epic battle.
