Queensland to rename ‘racist’ mountains
Mount Jim Crow and Mount Wheeler to revert to traditional Aborigine names
Queensland is to rename two mountains following sustained pressure from Aborigine campaigners.
Mount Jim Crow and Mount Wheeler, on Australia’s east coast, are to revert to the traditional names used by the indigenous Darumbal people before the arrival of European colonists.
As of Friday 18 May, the two peaks will be known as Baga and Gai-i, respectively.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
‘Aunty’ Sally Vea Vea, a Darumbal elder, told the ABC that her community had long wanted to see the traditional names restored to the mountains, which feature in Darumbal mythology and functioned as a historic meeting place for the community.
“It was a place where we had people come from our different clans to organise marriages, exchange weapons, and ceremony,” she said.
The drive to rename the mountains took on a new impetus in 2016, when the region around them was awarded native title - a status given by the Australian government to recognise indigenous rights over traditional tribal lands.
As well as the mountains’ significance to the local indigenous community, campaigners were also concerned about the origins of the westernised names.
Mount Jim Crow appears to have taken its name from a popular 19th-century blackface minstrel character of the same name. The laws used to enforce racial segregation in the US south before the 1960s civil rights movement are commonly referred to as ‘Jim Crow laws’.
The origins of Mount Wheeler are more obscure, but activists have suggested the name could be connected to Frederick Wheeler, a 19th-century police inspector accused of committing atrocities against native people.
Regardless of their origins, Vea Vea said the state government’s decision to return to native nomenclature was an important and necessary gesture for the indigenous community.
“The original names had been that way for 60,000 years but in the last 150 years they were changed,” she said.
Offensive place names imposed by colonists have been an ongoing cause for concern in 21st-century Australia. Last year, Queensland officially stopped recognising ten landmarks in the state using the n-word, including seven streams historically known as ‘N****r Creek’, the Brisbane Times reports.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
ADHD drugs shortage: what's behind it?
The Explainer Supply chain issues and 'tripling' of prescriptions concerns GPs as problems getting medication become 'desperate'
By The Week UK Published
-
Democrats eye a new strategy after Trump victory
The Explainer Party insiders and outside analysts are looking for a way to recapture lost working-class support
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: November 27, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Putin's fixation with shamans
Under the Radar Secretive Russian leader, said to be fascinated with occult and pagan rituals, allegedly asked for blessing over nuclear weapons
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Chimpanzees are dying of human diseases
Under the radar Great apes are vulnerable to human pathogens thanks to genetic similarity, increased contact and no immunity
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 24 February - 1 March
Puzzles and Quizzes Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will mounting discontent affect Iran election?
Today's Big Question Low turnout is expected in poll seen as crucial test for Tehran's leadership
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Sweden clears final NATO hurdle with Hungary vote
Speed Read Hungary's parliament overwhelmingly approved Sweden's accession to NATO
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published