Will Hobart take on its traditional Aboriginal name?

UPDATE: HOBART’S Lord Mayor has vowed to use the indigenous name for the state capital in official speeches he makes on behalf of the city. WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE

Heather Sculthorpe and her daughter Nunami Scluthorpe-Green were part of the announcement of the palawa kani name for Hobart, nipaluna. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

UPDATE: HOBART’S Lord Mayor Ron Christie has embraced the Aboriginal name for Hobart, nipaluna, and wants to see it displayed on street signs.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has proposed dual naming for the Tasmanian capital, and offered the name nipaluna to the City of Hobart yesterday to mark Reconciliation Week.

“I’ll be using it in every speech and every welcome I make to this city,” Ald Christie said.

“What an incredible gift from our Aboriginal community, we will embrace this.”

EDITORIAL: RESPECT VITAL, AS IS BALANCE

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre chief executive Heather Sculthorpe presented the name, inscribed on a plaque, to Ald Christie yesterday in a meeting between the indigenous community and Hobart City.

She said Hobart was the first capital city in Australia to be given such an honour.

“To mark Reconciliation Week this year, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has offered the city of Hobart the original name for this area — and the mayor has graciously accepted,” TAC chief executive Heather Sculthorpe said.

The Tasmanian Government said it would not support a dual name for Hobart, and the TAC has not taken the proposal to the Tasmanian Nomenclature Board for official recognition.

But Ald Christie said he would start using nipaluna straight away. Pronounced nippa-luna (“u” as in put).

“I don’t care if it hasn’t been officially recognised, I don’t care at all,” Ald Christie said.

“I’m going to be using it and I’m sure other aldermen will too.”

Ald Christie said he would present the dual name to Council next week and he felt confident it would be accepted, and other changes would follow.

“I would like to see this in future signage on Hobart - on street signs,” he said.

“We have many colonial names — Macquarie and Brisbane — why not have nipaluna on top of those street signs.”

Dual naming for Hobart would be an Australian first, and would follow 13 other places around Tasmania that have been officially assigned dual names under the Aboriginal and Dual Naming Policy 2012.

Premier Will Hodgman announced a review of the state’s dual naming policy last year.

A spokesman for the State Government said the review was ongoing through an “open and inclusive process”.

“While the Government does not support a dual name for Hobart, it is optimistic the TAC will contribute to the consultation to ensure their views are included in the review process,” he said.

Lord Mayor Ron Christie says he will use the Aboriginal name for Hobart in official speeches. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Ms Sculthorpe urged people to embrace the name, regardless of government sanction, as the widespread use would eventually speed up official change.

“We want to give the name directly to the people who want it — we don’t want to have to fight for it through a Board,” she said.

Ms Sculthorpe said adopting the original name for Hobart would be an active step towards reconciliation.

“This is about recognising the history of the place and understanding what happened,” she said.

She said the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre had spent 30 years researching Aboriginal language, which is the revived Aboriginal language spoken by Aboriginal Tasmanians.

The name nipaluna was recorded by George Augusts Robinson in 1831, when he took down notes from a conversation with Bruny Island Aborigine Woorrady.

She said the Aboriginal community already had 14 place names before the Nomenclature Board waiting for approval. Those places are on Tasmania’s West Coast.

She said it was a shame the roll out of dual names in Tasmania had come to a stall while the dual name policy was reviewed, and “people were turning it into a political bunfight”.

The review, announced last July, followed concerns the adoption of Aboriginal place names had not followed wide enough consultation.

Ms Sculthorpe’s daughter, Nunami Sculthorpe-Green, said it was time to give more recognition to Aboriginal people in the state’s capital city.

“This is still an Aboriginal place — even though they built a city on top of it,” she said.

Ms Sculthorpe-Green said it was great to see the gradual introduction of Aboriginal names in a city that, for the most part, had plaques and statues that excluded indigenous history.

She said the real story needed telling, not the Colonists’ version of events.

“They spent the first 30 years here trying to get rid of us, and the next 30 years putting up plaques trying to solidify the victory”.

The South East Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation said it supported the dual naming of Hobart but would only grant approval if all Aboriginal communities were consulted.

EARLIER: HOBART’S Lord Mayor has vowed to use the indigeous name for the state capital — nipaluna — in official speeches he makes on behalf of the city.

Speaking after a Reconciliation Week event where the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre offered the Hobart City Council use of the traditional name, Ald Ron Christie embraced the name and said he would be using it in his official speeches from now on.

“I will be using the name nipaluna from now on. I can assure you I will be using the name in every speech and every welcome I make to this city — and I make quite a few,” he said.

EARLIER: THE Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has offered the Hobart City Council use of the traditional name for the state capital — nipaluna.

TAC CEO Heather Sculthorpe said the name, from the revived Tasmanian Aboriginal language palawa kani, was rediscovered through painstaking research.

Ms Sculthorpe said it is a “fantastic thing to happen in Reconciliation Week” and a source of “immense pride”.

“It is part of this process of not having Aboriginal history hidden from the history of Tasmania,” she said.

“It’s about unveiling the true history of the area and letting people know that there were other people here before the English came, people with a vibrant society and a complex community in this area.”

Ms Sculthorpe had been keeping the name quiet until the official presentation to Lord Mayor Ron Christie, Hobart City Council general manager Nick Health and aldermen early this afternoon.

“The mayor, I think, is pretty excited to have this opportunity, as are we,” Ms Sculthorpe said.

Referring to Mike Parr’s upcoming MOFO performance, Ms Sculthorpe said: “We think that doing things like giving places back their real name will do a lot more than someone sitting under a road”.

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“There is an Aboriginal history here and something has to be done about making up for how much of our history was obliterated.”

Ms Sculthorpe said she hoped having an Aboriginal name for Hobart’s capital would give indigenous Tasmanians some comfort, connection and ownership over the land.

“All Aboriginal kids and adults will know that that’s saying we are important here, that we were here, this is our place and we belong here.

“When this name gets in use, we will be the first [city] in Australia to have a proper name,” Ms Sculthorpe said.

The TAC successfully lobbied for Mt Wellington to be also know by its traditional name, kunanyi.

As part of the State Government’s Aboriginal and dual-naming policy, the name of the mountain was officially changed to kunanyi/Mt Wellington in early 2014.