National Benefit

By creating a common ground for understanding the local Indigenous geographical heritage, this project attempts to contribute towards reconciliation from a completely different perspective.

The project produces a new awareness of place (Seddon, 2004) in the South-West.
It explores the ways in which Indigenous interpretation of place and history triggers innovative approaches to the nature of sovereignty, identity and difference.
It enables everyone who lives in the South-West to relate more intensely to the area’s long-term history.
It allows locals to recognise that they are part of a special environment that has sustained people for over 30,000 years; that the place they belong to has an identity shaped by this history.
It recognises that the area will have greater tourist and visitor opportunities as a result. (Collard et al., 2008; Collard and Palmer, 2008).

This project meets a range of national economic, social and environmental benefits.

It will, in the near future, enable new tourist ventures to emerge based on the names of particular places and their associated stories (Vanclay et al., 2008). It will mean each community will be given a physical basis to focus their work on reconciliation and help close the cultural and health gap. It will deepen everyone’s sense of place. It will provide a stronger motivation for protecting the heritage of the area – both natural and built. It will provide a major addition to Australia’s cultural heritage in itself.

The approach taken in this project could be applied anywhere else across Australia.