Replace English names with Aboriginal ones.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has stirred up a storm of controversy in his native Australia by calling for the country’s state capitals to be renamed.
The British-based, Australian-born activist wants the English names dropped in favour of Aboriginal ones, arguing “renaming is about embracing an authentic, unique Australian identity, and honouring the country’s Aboriginal heritage”.
Tatchell sparked the furore during his visit to Tasmania this week, when he called for the state capital of Hobart to be renamed Nibberluna, the Aboriginal name for the place where Hobart now stands.
“It is absurd that most Australian cities are named after aristocrats from a country on the other side of the world”, said Mr Tatchell.
“It shows we are still mentally and culturally colonised by the imperial power that once ruled over us”.
“Naming our cities after English toffs is insulting and degrading to all Australians”.
“Instead of tugging our forelocks in a show of collective servility to Mother England, the names of our capitals should reflect the distinctiveness of this wonderful land and its amazing Aboriginal history”.
“Only a nation lacking in self-confidence names its cities after the ruling elite of a country that once invaded and occupied it”.
“The capital of India is not called Mountbatten, and Malaysia’s capital isn’t called Churchill”.
“It is time Australia broke with the era of colonial occupation and dropped its obsequious attitude’.
” Australia is a unique nation and the names of our major cities should reflect that uniqueness”.
“I appeal to my fellow Australians to join me in a great national campaign to rename our state capitals according to the original Aboriginal names for the places where they now stand”.
Nibberluna is, for example, the Aboriginal name for the area that is today Hobart. It is a far more appropriate and distinctive name for the Tasmanian capital”.
“Renaming the state capitals is a gesture of national pride. It is a process of asserting our authentic Australian identity and showing our respect for the first inhabitants of this extraordinary country”.
“A mature, confident, independent nation embraces and celebrates its own specialness. It doesn’t copy and grovel”.
“National pride requires the names of our cities to be uniquely Australian, and not unimaginative, fawning tributes to the English nobility,” said Mr Tatchell.