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Nationals WA Albany candidate to fund City’s Menang Noongar dual-naming project

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Sarah MakseAlbany Advertiser
Menang elder Mark Colbung and Albany Nationals candidate Delma Baesjou.
Camera IconMenang elder Mark Colbung and Albany Nationals candidate Delma Baesjou. Credit: Supplied

Albany’s historic Menang Noongar dual-naming project will receive $108,000 from the Nationals WA if they form government at the March State election.

Albany candidate Delma Baesjou this week pledged to support the City of Albany project through the Nationals WA’s Royalties for Regions fund if elected.

The City’s Restoring Menang Noongar Place Names project is tipped to be one of the most expansive dual-naming projects in the country.

A project team has spent months scouring hundreds of historical records and interviewing Albany’s Menang leaders to identify the Menang names for 66 sites within the City of Albany’s boundaries.

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The project could see natural landmarks including Binalup (Middleton Beach), Doggerdirup (Bald Head) and Mairet (Wilson Inlet) have their traditional Menang monikers sit alongside their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

Currently out for community consultation, if the names are endorsed by the City of Albany council, they will be submitted to Landgate for dual-naming.

Menang elder Mark Colbung said the project was about sharing traditional stories and building understanding of the region’s Menang history.

Ms Baesjou said the Nationals WA’s funding would help install interpretive signage and storyboards at each site, as well as promoting the dual names through tourism publications and digital content.

“Albany may be the first English settlement site in WA but it’s a historic landscape of sacred sites of agriculture, Menang business, and a place where Menang people have always lived,” she said.

“It is a straightforward way to holistically acknowledge Albany’s history, and an opportunity for the region to be a pioneer of dual-naming nationwide.”

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