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The Project, ABC News, 7:30 to keep traditional place names on screen

NADIOC Week enhancement was more than just a fleeting gesture.

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In NAIDOC Week when traditional place names began being added to screens, there was some question of whether this was a one-off gesture.

But both The Project, ABC News and 7:30 have indicated it will be longer lasting. These will include dual place names.

Chris Bendall, executive producer of The Project said on Twitter, “Last week @theprojecttv added traditional place names to all our interview locations for #NAIDOCWeek. This is now a permanent practice.

ABC has increased the use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nation names through supers in video programming, news reporting and in social media and TV and commissioned screen content.

ABC News has also begun incorporating Acknowledgment of Country on State and Territory 7pm television bulletins in the ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and NSW. In Queensland and Victoria, Indigenous place names will be included in viewer-sourced photographs in weather reports within the 7pm bulletins.

7:30 has also begin including Indigenous place names (pictured top).

Phillipa McDermott, ABC Indigenous Lead, said: “Indigenous languages and place names are not just a means of simple Identification, they express knowledge about everything we know: Family, clan, law, geography, history, relationships, philosophy, religion, anatomy, country, everything.

“So, when we invite our audience to listen to and practise these words and languages, we are not only maintaining our culture but we are passing it on to new generations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who now live on this land.

“We hope it will ignite their imaginations to think about what the word means or what the place where they might live, work or travel to means, and the deep spiritual significance of that name or place. The ABC is an industry leader in this space and while we are already working with many other organisations, we really encourage all our industry colleagues to do the same.”

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  2. That’s great but there is a noticeable teething problem which is the accuracy of the namings. Some of the names used to describe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander names for cities or locations are incorrect. They sometimes use the name of the traditional group as the city or location name, which is literally like naming Glasgow as ‘Scottish’. Even when it’s referring to the traditional country, they sometimes incorrectly use the name of the custodial group of the area to describe the location instead of the name of the traditional country or location name.

    There would need to be more research done and they may need to talk to indigenous land corporations or organisations like Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies to get the correct name for the locations from the local indigenous languages.

    It’s not an easy task but it’s commendable.

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