This Place: Sharing Indigenous place names
First Languages Australia partnered with the ABC to create This Place, a project through which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can publish stories about place names in their region.
Through This Place, hundreds of language custodians across Australia are collaborating with ABC producers to share the meaning and stories behind Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander place names.
This incredible collection of beautiful place stories continues to grow, and you can access them via Gambay, First Languages Australia’s interactive languages map or ABC iview.
First Languages Australia Manager, Faith Baisden, expects the contributions to be varied, with people sharing traditional names that are not on official maps while also explaining the meaning behind well-known places.
‘This Place is a wonderful opportunity to tell the stories of the land while also building a beautiful visual collection that will help everyone have a deeper understanding of the connection through the ages of people to this land.’ Faith said. ‘Contributors will use the project to celebrate places that are important to them.’
Former Director of ABC Regional and Local, Michael Mason, said the ABC’s network of metropolitan and regional stations in 56 locations around Australia had already established strong relationships with local language centres through the radio network’s on-air identifications in language and Mother Tongue project partnerships with First Languages Australia. “We see the place names project as a further strengthening of these relationships as well as giving us the opportunity to build new ones,” Mr Mason said.
The ABC is calling out to Indigenous community members and filmmakers who are interested in working together to share 3-5 minute stories of a place in their region. Please contact us if you would like to contribute.
Writer and historian Bruce Pascoe is one of the drivers behind First Languages Australia's national place names project, titled Nangun wruk–which means 'our earth' or 'we are of the earth' in Bidhawal, a language of the coastal Victorian and NSW border region.
