The King Leopold Ranges, a mountain chain in Western Australia, were named after the Belgian ruler King Leopold II, whose regime killed and maimed millions of Congolese in the late 1800s. "As an Aboriginal woman, I was really chuffed to see that happen - it was very empowering for me," the psychology professor at the University of Western Australia told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Thousands of landmarks and places across Australia bear names that are offensive to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders or that celebrate their oppressors, indigenous activists say. "(In) Townsville we need to understand what he did because most people don't remember, they just walk past the statue." But the recent renaming of the King Leopold Ranges is a step in the right direction, showing that Australia is "maturing as a nation", he added.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 03, 2020 00:11 UTC