West MacDonnell National Park, Emily and Jessie Gaps, Ewaninga rock area changed to Aboriginal names

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Three of Central Australia's nature parks are being re-branded to reflect their traditional Aboriginal names.

West MacDonnell National Park, Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park and the Ewaninga Rock Carvings Conservation Reserve will now be known by a mixture of their traditional Aboriginal names and the current names.

For the next 10 to 20 years the parks will be respectively known as Tjoritja/ West MacDonnell National Park, Yeperenye/Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park and Napwerte/Ewaninga Rock Carvings Conservation Reserve.

Eventually it is expected they will be known only by their Aboriginal names.

"The names have been changed to reflect each park or reserve's deep and long-standing Aboriginal cultural associations," Northern Territory's Parks and Wildlife Minister Bess Price said.

"It will take time for people to adjust to the new names, but Uluru and Nitmiluk are good examples where the Aboriginal place names have become commonly accepted and adopted around the world," she said in a statement.

Tjoritja has no specific meaning, but is how the MacDonnell Ranges have been known for a long time by the Western and Central Arrente people.

Yeperenye is the name for one of the three caterpillars traditional owners of the East MacDonnell Ranges associated with important cultural sites and rock art.

Napwerte is the name for a rocky outcrop in the rock carvings conservation reserve, but as the entire name is a sacred men's site any association with the name remains secret, the Government's statement said.

Central Land Council chairman Francis Kelly welcomed the move, but said he thought the European and Aboriginal names should always be part of the official titles of the parks.

"I think it is best to have both names there to be recognised," Mr Francis said.

"People from all over are coming in and recognise the two worlds, sharing things," he said.

Mr Kelly said including the traditional names helped maintain the culture and keep song lines alive.

He said the site that has been known as the Ewaninga Rock Carvings Conservation Reserve already had an Aboriginal name in its title, which was the name for a leader in the community, and he was unsure why traditional owners wanted that name changed.

Topics: aboriginal, aboriginal-language, government-and-politics, alice-springs-0870