NEWS
Place Names Walyalup wins History Council award
This award feels very appropriate for Place Names Walyalup, which has been described by the History Council as “a beautiful, vibrant and meaningful contribution to place and community”.
Place Names Walyalup was produced by CAN, Moodjar, the City of Fremantle and Noongar community members, and began with workshops to decode the ancient meanings of 5 Noongar placenames around Walyalup. Led by Noongar Elder and Moodjar co-director Professor Len Collard and Noongar Elder Geri Hayden, the workshops were attended by Noongar Elders and community members.
The decoded placenames were then explored using a creative cultural mapping method led by arts practitioners Natalie Scholtz, Elly Jones and Sandy McKendrick. The creative cultural mapping resulted in an exhibition at Fremantle Arts Centre.
The project also produced a large-scale cultural map that creatively expresses the placename meanings and stories, more than 40 individual artworks, a series of short films, educational resources and an interactive digital map which you can check out below:
This award feels very appropriate for Place Names Walyalup, which has been described by the History Council as “a beautiful, vibrant and meaningful contribution to place and community”.
The History Council award was presented to Professor Len Collard and Geri Hayden at a ceremony held at the State Library of Western Australia on Monday evening. Both were thrilled to see Place Names Place Names Walyalup receive the award.
"It's amazing recognition for all of us on the team," said Len. "This project is innovative, it's cutting edge and really relevant to where Australia is today. It's helping people to understand connection to country and the significance of place names and their meaning. It's a privilege to be a part of this collaboration between CAN, Moodjar and the City of Fremantle."
Other award winners included: Studies in Western Australian History (SWAH), the pre-eminent refereed journal for research on Western Australian history; Ann Curthoys, Shino Konishi, and Alexandra Ludewig for their book The Lives and Legacies of a Carceral Island: A Biographical History of Wadjemup/Rottnest Island; and The Historical Panoramas project: Curtin University HIVE (Hub for Immersive Visualisation) with staff from the State Library of Western Australia.
Place Names Walyalup was supported by the Federal Government through the Indigenous Languages and the Arts Program.
Top: Chair of the History Council of WA Deborah Gare, Geri Hayden and Len Collard.
Geri Hayden and Len Collard sharing the cultural map that expresses Walyalup placename meanings and stories at the awards presentation night.
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