Australian creek name changed after complaints it was 'not culturally safe'
Aboriginal name 'reinstated' after campaign by indigenous activists.
Jim Crow Creek in central Victoria has been renamed after complaints from local Indigenous people that it was not “culturally safe”.
Hepburn Shire Council voted to rename the creek in April last year and an official celebration was held on Tuesday.
Mayor Brian Hood said the former name was unacceptable.
“The reality is that Jim Crow stems from racial segregation and anti-black racism and is therefore unacceptable,” he said.
It is thought the creek was named Jim Crow Creek by Captain John Hepburn in the 1830s.
“Jim Crow” was a white performer in the US who painted his face black and did a song and dance called “Jumping Jim Crow”.
The term “Jim Crow” then became an insult used in the US against black people.
In 2018, Mount Jim Crow in Queensland was renamed Baga.
The Victorian creek was renamed Larni Barramal Yaluk, which means “the creek that flows through the home or dreaming place of the emu”.
Dja Dja Wurrung Group chief executive Rodney Carter said Jim Crow Creek was offensive.
“It was offensive to my people, and I think, to others,” he said.
“That name meant this creek was not a culturally safe place for Dja Dja Wurrung and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.”
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