Our Languages Matter

This project involved invention of a framework for engagement between Aboriginal communities and placename authorities, whereby collaborators worked to develop a holistic, inclusive process for the way these groups came together and communicated. As a design firm, ThinkPlace created a space to allow diverse people and interests to create change, using various methods and resources to drive shared understanding and purpose in a way that is both pragmatic and symbolic.

ThinkPlace worked with Traditional Owners (descendants of a tribe or ethnic group that occupied a particular region before European settlement) and other stakeholders to co-design new frameworks for Aboriginal people to connect with government - running sessions across Victoria where Traditional Owners engaged with local councils, surveyors, developers, planners, and others. The purpose of the workshops, developed with ThinkPlace and presented with Geographic Names Victoria, was to provide opportunities for Traditional Owners to promote the importance of local Aboriginal languages in the naming of roads, geographic features, and localities. In addition, participants from local and state government were supported to explore ways for establishing strong professional relationships with Traditional Owners to enable future collaborative naming activities.

More specifically, the workshops, lasting around 6 hours, began with Welcome to Country (ritual performed to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to a particular Aboriginal clan or language group) and, where possible, smoking ceremonies. Traditional Owners then hosted the opening session of the workshop and shared language and other cultural heritage knowledge, which ThinkPlace explains set the agenda for participant collaboration throughout the remainder of the day. Attendees worked through possible naming opportunities within their local municipal council areas and mapped out what the process might be for such namings. Thus, each workshop was unique, with discussions localised to the place in which participants were convening. Recognising the different language groups and competencies in the room (including technical languages), ThinkPlace worked to create shared understanding, shared intent, and shared direction by depicting sessions visually, scribing with a mix of pictures, diagrams, and simple words.

The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages also participated by supporting discussions about revival and maintenance of Aboriginal languages and the importance of local cultural heritages.

Around 2 weeks after the workshop(s), attendees were provided via email with a conversation tracker that covered the key areas of the day, as well as all presentations. The email also provided some follow-up actions from the day:

• By National Reconciliation week 2019, have one road, feature, or locality named using Aboriginal language.
• Add naming to Reconciliation Action Plan.
• Approach Traditional Owners - write to them and ask for a list of: offensive names; generic use names; and important sites for Traditional Owners that could be assigned an Aboriginal language.

Rights

Around Australia, in many instances, the names of things - roads, waterways, and geographic features - reference acts of violence or displacement against Aboriginal people. For example, some geographic features are named after colonial settlers who participated in atrocities against Aboriginal people. "Some of the names in our landscape are racist and offensive. Some are just plain wrong in terms of how they are said or spelled," according to Susanna Collis, who worked on the project as a representative of the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council. "This actually does matter to Traditional Owners. They feel it." In other cases, names may appear harmless but, by their simple existence, they may be effectively obscuring or erasing Aboriginal culture. In contrast, using the names that have been there for thousands of years "highlights the continuity, presence and importance of Aboriginal culture," Collins asserts.

According to ThinkPlace, naming authorities have too often been confused by how to engage with Aboriginal communities. At the same time, communities have felt unvalued, ignored, and degraded by a lack of engagement and unaware of how decisions about naming are being made.

Project organisers cite the following impacts of the process/project:

• Provided placename authorities with the tools and motivation to productively engage, and build enduring relationships, with Aboriginal communities in naming processes.
• Increased the ability of stakeholders to understand, pronounce, and value Aboriginal place names.
• Offered a platform for Traditional Owners across Victoria to register their objections to offensive local place names, and initiated a process of replacing those names with appropriate ones.
• Reinstated Aboriginal names for places (leading to new signage and interpretation), thereby opening up new business opportunities for Traditional Owners around tourism and interpretation.

2019 was the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages. In that year, Our Languages Matter won Australia's annual Good Design Awards programme. The judges commented: "This is a project that applies co-design approaches to a sensitive and complex topic, and the adoption of visual techniques to work around language challenges. The Jury appreciated the connection between participation and positive impact for the communities involved - creating value through both process and outcome."