In celebration of NAIDOC Week, Australia Post has announced that from today Aussies will be prompted to address all letters and parcels to the traditional First Nation country names — a fitting announcement for this year's theme of "Heal Country".
The campaign has been led by Gomeroi woman, Rachael McPhail, who began petitioning Australia Post last year to make the change: "Calling for place names to be made part of the official address information in Australia."
Previously, Australian Post advised senders to include the traditional place beneath the addressee's name and before the street address. But now, all parcels will include a designated area to write "Traditional place name (if known)".
Excellent initiative @australiapost A good model for our education and training institutions. It's time #HealCountry @naidocweek @uniaus @DETVic @johnnodvc https://t.co/tqymTOIuY2
Aussies have welcomed the news enthusiastically — thanking Rachael for leading the charge and celebrating this long-overdue victory for First Nations peoples.
@AnitaHeiss @australiapost Major kudos and huge thanks to Rachael. This can only build momentum; even more powerful than it may seem.
@ianbremmer @gzeromedia Happy NAIDOC week. Australia Post celebrated by making space for Indigenous place names on parcels. Now that’s progress I am happy about! https://t.co/pNCo7FPxHN
And the heroine behind the logistics of making this happen is Gomeroi woman, Rachael McPhail, who works passionately on this ‘project’ and is bringing the masses with her. Most importantly, she has @australiapost on board.
The Australia Post initiative of including aboriginal place names seems a wonderful idea. But we should wait to see if it upsets Andrew Bolt just to be certain.