Language as Ownership

This panel discussion, presented by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council, Museums Victoria and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), will explore the power of language and what this means for Traditional Owners and today’s community.

The speakers will examine how language is used to create a parameter of ownership, be it renaming geographic places, or classification and cataloguing within museums. How language can fit within our current legal system and the part it plays in Aboriginal self-determination will also be discussed within the context of imposed and subverted power dynamics.