Artwork by Emily Rose and Robyn Jean LEARN MORE
How much do we really know about the places we call home?
For generations, traditional place names have held a lot of meaning for First Nations communities around Australia. These names are strongly connected to Traditional Owner history, culture and Country.
Place Names Maali, a project in Perth’s east is establishing a new standard in traditional place naming, thanks to Landgate’s collaboration with the City of Swan and Aboriginal cultural consultant, Moodjar.
A reconciliation, truth telling and Aboriginal language revival project, it is the beginning of a state-wide journey to reclaim and reassert Aboriginal place names and their meanings across WA.
Place Names Maali encompasses the City of Swan region and its surrounds, decoding local Noongar place names at many of the region’s locations while educating the community about their cultural significance.
There are many Aboriginal place names currently recorded in the Landgate database, with information sources ranging from the first colonial surveyor records to contemporary naming and knowledge. Many of these names have never been properly translated, which has led to unknown or incorrect meanings for some important locations.
Through a series of four decoding workshops, the decoding group, Maali miy (the Voice of Swan) were able to uncover and decode 18 Noongar place names in the local area within the City of Swan. Maali miy was made up of Noongar Elders, local Traditional Owners and members of the Whadjuk Aboriginal Corporation Cultural Advice Committee. The decoding process included robust conversations about the selected Noongar place names to capture the stories, translations and pronunciations of each place. The Maali miy provided strong cultural leadership and kaartidijin (knowledge) in the decoding process and broke down each place name to reveal the true stories of the boodjar (land). Sharing and discussing the colonial records and wordlists, the Maali miy challenged some of these records and re-asserted their ancestral kaartidjin.
Further enhancing this valuable project, Landgate has introduced an interactive and informative online visual mapping portal that brings together a rich cultural story connecting language to place. The mapping portal, called Aboriginal Place Names, shows the approved translated City of Swan traditional place names and their precise locations, and includes videos, audio pronunciation recordings, and explains the meaning of each geographic feature or place.
As more traditional place names from other regions in WA are added, the mapping portal will become an important educational resource from which the community can understand the history and meaning behind significant locations.
Bringing thousands of years of history to the fore, both Place Names Maali and the Aboriginal Place Names mapping portal are helping to build an understanding and appreciation of the Boodja that will live on for many generations to come.
