Colonial King Leopold ranges no more

A West Australian mountain range named after a colonial tyran­t king who ruled over forced labour will be renamed.

The King Leopold Ranges in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

A West Australian mountain range named after a colonial tyran­t king who ruled over forced labour and atrocities in the Congo will be renamed, the McGowan government says.

Traditional owners will rename the 567km-long King Leopold Ranges in the far north Kimberley, originally named for Leopold II from Belgium who ruled over Congo until 1908.

Aboriginal Affairs and Lands Minister Ben Wyatt, who described King Leopold II as an “evil tyrant”, announced the change as debate over the Black Lives Matter movement enlivened arguments over controversial historical figures immortalised in monuments.

Scott Morrison’s comments on Thursday that Australia had no history of slavery, for which he apologised on Friday, has led to calls to remove statues of two men — Robert Towns and John Mackay — who kidnapped thousands of South Sea Islanders and forced them to work in Queensland sugar­cane fields.

Former commissioner of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island­er Commission Shireen Malamoo, whose grandmother was forcibly taken from Vanuatu, said statues such as that of Towns in the main street of the city named after him, Townsville, has long angered her fellow “kanaka” descendants. “The statue is an insult to us, a constant reminder of what this man and others did to our people,’’ Ms Malamoo said.

But she is also supportive of a number of indigenous leaders, including fellow South Sea Islander descendant Gracelyn Smallwood, taking a different path to the globa­l push by Black Lives Matters activists to remove monuments and potentially offensive films.

On Friday, the Prime Minister called on Australians to “build up”, not “tear down” colonial history, as indigenous Labor parliament­arians Linda Burney and Mal­arn­dirri McCarthy said there was no need to remove imperial statues, or to take Gone with the Wind from streaming services. It was a sentiment Ms Malamoo says she can live with, as long as Australians are better taught the “real history” and black Australians are also celebrated with statues and monuments.

“Few know the history of the kanakas — their stories need to be taught alongside those of the first Australians, (and) the convicts,’’ she said. “All of us, black and white, need to learn the truth and we all grow up.’’

Mr Morrison said he was not interested in whether streaming services such as Netflix and HBO Max were removing films and TV shows: his focus would be on jobs. “I’m not interested in the debate about what people want to tear down. I’m interested in what people­ want to build up,” he said. “What you’re watching on television is your business. Not going to create one job. Let’s focus on where Australians are hurting to­day. And they really are hurting.”

Ms Burney, Labor’s indigenous affairs spokeswoman, told The Weekend Australian she wanted more Australians to learn about the misdeeds of colonial figures and for more monuments celeb­rating indigenous Australians to be built. “Ultimately, what I’d like to see is a greater understanding of First Nations history, and I’m not sure removing statues achieves this,” she said.

“I’d much rather see more effort­ made into learning about the truth and historical context of these figures, including the terrible things they might have done.

“I also think there’s a good ­opportunity to erect statues and monuments that do reflect the wonderfully diverse and ancient story of Australia. We don’t need to destroy the past to learn from it, but we do need to be honest about the darker parts of our history.’’

Additional reporting: Richard Ferguson