The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has condemned a proposal to name a federal electorate Tongerlongeter, saying it “goes against everything he fought and died for”.
The Australian Electoral Commission announced on July 15 that the redrawn electorate of Franklin would be renamed Tongerlongeter.
It would be the first federal electorate in Tasmania named after an Aboriginal person.
The commission said Tongerlongeter, who lived from about 1790 to 1837, was a member of the Oyster Bay nation, whose Country falls within the electorate’s proposed boundaries.
Franklin is being substantially redrawn, shifting from Australia’s southernmost electorate to one focused on the south-east coast and lying entirely east of the River Derwent.
Centre campaign coordinator Nala Mansell said Tongerlongeter, whose name she said was actually Tukalunginta, was a leader who died resisting British colonisation.
“To suggest that Tukalunginta’s name should now be used to represent the very colonial political system he resisted – one that, 223 years later, continues to deny Aborigines the same rights he fought and died defending, is offensive and absurd,” she said.
“Using Tukalunginta’s name to represent the colonial boundaries and political system imposed upon Aboriginal people completely misrepresents who he was and what he fought for.”
Mansell said the centre would have corrected the spelling and suggested more appropriate options had the commission contacted it.
“This situation was entirely avoidable,” she said.
“Instead of making decisions about Aboriginal people and inviting us to comment afterwards, organisations should involve Aboriginal people from the beginning.”
The AEC said the panel had engaged with and sought to engage different Tasmanian Aboriginal groups before announcing the proposal.
Electoral commissioner Jeff Pope previously said the redistribution committee had deliberately called for name suggestions rather than proposing one when the process began in February.
“The process for renaming an electorate is a consultative one but the augmented electoral commission can only consider formal submissions, so we’ve been really encouraging people to submit by the deadline or register for the consultation session if they’d like to input,” he said.
Written submissions closed on July 21. A public consultation session will be held in Hobart on July 31, with a final announcement expected in August.
