Addressing history: Indigenous place names added to Australian mailing labels

Australia Post has launched new address labels that include a line for traditional place names. Canada Post says it is 'following this effort with great interest.' (Australia Post)

TORONTO — Australia, like Canada, is a nation built on Indigenous territory.

A new initiative in that country encourages its inhabitants to think about the history of their land every time they mail a letter.

Australia Post announced this week that it has revamped its mail packaging to include an optional line for traditional place names. Anyone using their own envelope to send mail can also include traditional place names in the addresses they write.

The change was the result of a petition launched by Rachael McPhail, a Gomeroi woman and university student.

McPhail told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday that the inspiration for the idea came to her early in the pandemic, when she was placing an online shopping order and included Wiradjuri Country in her address. Though not officially part of government addresses, Country is commonly used in Australia to denote areas traditionally inhabited and used by people of its First Nations, similar to traditional territory in Canada.

"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing … just to see if it would work, and it did," she said via Zoom.

McPhail said a photo of her package arriving with Wiradjuri Country on the address label was widely shared on social media, which led to her encouraging others to follow suit.

Last October, she started a petition calling on Australia Post to commit to including traditional place names in addresses. Within two weeks, the petition had garnered more than 10,000 signatures.

It caught the attention of the postal agency, too. Representatives from Australia Post met with McPhail and agreed to immediately update its website with guidelines for including traditional place names in addresses. The wheels were also set in motion at that time for the new address labels.

Chris Heelan, Australia Post's National Indigenous manager, said in a press release that in addition to McPhail's lobbying, thousands of Australians told the postal agency they wanted the ability to recognize traditional place names.

“Including the Traditional Place name as part of the mailing address is a simple but meaningful way to promote and celebrate our Indigenous communities," he said.

Including traditional place names alongside government-designated addresses is an increasingly common practice in Australia. They can be requested for driver's licences, and there have been calls for the popular National Rugby League to make better use of them.

McPhail has one more goal in mind, and it may be her biggest one yet: the creation of a new database and map of all traditional place names in Australia, with the help of elders from First Nations in Australia. She says many Australians are not fully aware of the history of the land on which they live.

"Every single day, I get a message from someone asking [me] to help them to find out the traditional place name of the land they're on, or where they want to send their mail to," the social work student said.

"There's a huge knowledge gap there."

One map already exists on a government website, but it includes a disclaimer that it is based on old records and may not be fully accurate. McPhail says elders do not believe that the government map's 241 entries encompass the full history of the First Nations of Australia.

"If we continue to use that map … we're actually contributing to ongoing oppression of First Nations people," she said.

McPhail has refocused her petition, now urging Australia Post to create a better database of traditional place names. As of Wednesday morning, the document had more than 21,000 signatures.

In addition, McPhail says that she would like to see other countries built on Indigenous land – including Canada – follow Australia's lead in including traditional place names in mailing addresses.

A spokesperson for Canada Post told CTVNews.ca that the agency "applauds this effort by Australia Post" and is watching closely.

"We are following this effort with great interest as we implement our Indigenous and Northern reconciliation strategy," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Launched last year, the reconciliation strategy involves improving postal service in Indigenous communities, improving the hiring and retention of Indigenous Peoples, and setting a target of procuring five per cent of all goods and services from Indigenous-owned companies.

The spokesperson declined to say whether any changes to the address-labelling template are being considered here.

McPhail is documenting the progress of her campaign and sharing photographs of other Australians using traditional place names in mailing address on Instagram.