Last week, I met with representatives from Australia Post to discuss the campaign. They are on-board with most of what I’ve asked of them, but are hesitant to commit to creating a national database of traditional place names within their next Reconciliation Action Plan period. 

Australia Post has agreed to update the website with new guidelines about including traditional place names. They will also be launching new envelopes and parcel post packaging with a standard Acknowledgement of Country printed on them. These are excellent first steps towards social change, so thank you again to all of you for signing the petition and emailing Australia Post. 

In the coming days, their marketing team will be in touch with me to review how we will disseminate the new information. They are still working out details about how the Acknowledgement of Country will look on the postal materials, so we can expect an announcement on this later.

The discussion about Australia Post consulting with Elders from all Countries to create a national database of traditional place names was less optimistic. They were hesitant to commit to this large-scale project within the two year period of the next Reconciliation Action Plan.

In order to achieve true social change and decolonisation of the address system within Australia, we need Australia Post to undertake this project so that we can have an accurate and comprehensive record of the traditional place names, according to the Elders, whilst they are still here to share this knowledge with us.

It is also an important piece of this initiative, as it will allow both large and small businesses to adopt the decolonised address format, and allow customers the piece of mind to know that they are using the correct traditional place name, as verified by Elders within the consultation process.
We need to stand firm, and keep pushing for this important social change.

Please continue to stand with me by sharing the petition and spreading awareness about the campaign