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Lesson ideas

Dual place names in Australia

Students develop an understanding of the significance and importance of place names.
Students gain awareness of the different Government bodies involved in naming places in Australia.

This activity provides students with the opportunity to appreciate the Aboriginal and European place names in their local area and the Sydney region.

• Provide students with the stimulus material, Norman Tindale's 'Tribal Boundaries in Aboriginal Australia' found at http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/page/default.asp?site=2&page=TIN_Tribal

• Who is Norman Tindale? (Refer to Teacher's Notes 1)

• Discuss the word 'tribe' and note that we no longer refer to Aboriginal groups as tribes. We now use the term 'clan' or 'group'.

• Ask students to brainstorm some types of landmarks commonly found on maps.

• Divide the class into 2 groups, A and B. Ask group A to draw a map for a friend who has never been to the area providing details of the journey the student takes each morning to get to school. Encourage students to include street names, landmarks and place names where possible. Ask Group B to do the same thing without using place names.

• Observe and compare the two groups. Group A should be able to communicate more easily while group B (who are not using place names) may have more difficulty with this exercise.

• Discuss the role of place names; their historical, social and cultural significance. Use local names to give examples of each type of place name. For example, Macdonald Street may be named after a person who once lived in the street; Petersham may be taken from a place in England or East Hills named because of its topographic structure.

• Find out what students know about the place names in their local area? These may be nearby suburbs; landmarks such as rivers; mountains; hills; parks; shopping centres or other buildings.

• Are any of these words Aboriginal? If not, why not?

• Are any place names the original place name of the Aboriginal clan or group?

• Introduce the idea that in Australia we have two place names, one superimposed over the other. The first is the set of place names that Indigenous Australians developed to refer to places. The second set is that introduced by the Europeans.

• Ask students to locate and identify from the Tindale map the clan or group of the local area.

• What knowledge do they have of this group?

• Find out from the students in your class if there are any students or members of the local community they know identify as part of this clan.

• Handout 2: Table of place names (see Teacher's Notes 2) ask students to suggest the present name of these places. Students then write these in the right hand column.

• Use the street Sydney Street Directory to assist students in identifying unfamiliar place names.

For further discussion:
Handout 3: Dual Naming- Supporting cultural recognition
Handout 4: Geographical Names Board brochure

• Why are place names important to different cultural groups?

• What is a geographical feature?

• Why don't all places in Australia have Aboriginal place names?

• Who gives a place its name?

• What information is required before a place is named?

• What is meant by 'dual naming'?

• Refer students to the National Gazetteer of Australia. Ask students to find out about the geographical details of the places on the table provided.

• Look at the site: www.livingharbour.net/aboriginal/place. Design a poster informing the community about dual naming of a local landmark.

Aboriginal Sydney, M Hinkson. Aboriginal Studies Press, 2001
The Land is a Map, Edited by L Hercus, F Hodges, J Simpson. Pandanus Books, 2002

• Land.Vic

• Geographic Names Board

• NSW Department of Lands

• South Australia Museum

• Australian Museum

• National Archives of Australia