Rename the street?

There is a street in a small town in the south east of this state which was given the name of "Chinaman's Lane". It was given the name because people used to stop there to buy vegetables as they travelled to and from the goldfields in the next state. The vegetables were grown by Chinese people - who possibly did rather better than many of those who went to try their luck on the goldfields.

Someone complained about the name recently. They claimed it was "racist" and asked it be changed. They had bought a house in the street and they did not like the name. It was embarrassing.

The matter went to the local council and they voted against changing it. I am glad of that. The name should not be construed as "racist". It is a part of history.

It has made me wonder yet again about other names and renamings to fit political agendas. There have been attempts, some of them successful and others less so, to change other names here. Some people argue that explorers who have held what are now unacceptable views should not have anything named after them. Some say that those who are alleged to have committed acts which are now (and sometimes were) offensive should have nothing named after them. Some say that the names revert to what the local indigenous population of the time called a place.

There is a street named after my paternal great-grandfather in the port area of this city. It was named in recognition of his work mapping the "river" - actually a long inlet - and the coastline. His work, and that of another man, allowed the ships to come much closer to the area which is now the CBD. It is a part of our family history and we are I suppose very proud of it.

But what sort of man was my great-grandfather? I suspect he was a man of his time. I suspect his views about women were of their time too. We know his daughters, my great-aunts, did not go on to further education. All of them had the intellectual capacity to do it. They did work as "secretaries" and "assistant teachers" but there was no formal training for them at the time. Their brothers were apprenticed. All of them had work at which they succeeded but Great-grandpa was still a man of his time. Education beyond school was not considered very important, especially for women. Should we ask for the street to be renamed because of views which would be held to be mysogynistic now?

The granddaughter of the other man once told me that her grandfather "had no time for the aborigines". He apparently thought they were lazy.  She wondered if the few there were "hung around because nobody was prepared to employ them". It is certainly a possibility but we have no way of knowing. Do we ask for that street to be renamed because of views which would have been held by many others - perhaps even Great-grandpa?

And what of the entire area? Do we "revert" to the indigenous name for it? What was that name? What did it mean? Was it the only name given to the area? Did another tribe use that name too or did they use a different name? Does anyone really know or are we simply being told a story by someone who claims to know? 

It is actually very unlikely our ancestors were told actual names for places. The local indigenous population of the day had very different ideas about geography and cartography. They did not use maps or compasses. When our local council claims to be renaming some places with "indigenous" names they are doing nothing of the sort. Quite apart from anything else they are using what is alleged to be the plains language of this area for a hills people. The languages they spoke were quite different.

Retaining "Chinaman's Lane" is a well documented nod to the past and should be left as it is. Great-grandpa and his colleague, along with many explorers and others, were people of their day. Their names should be left too. They tell us something about our history.

For indigenous names it is much, much more complex but to give something or somewhere an indigenous name simply for the sake of some sort of political correctness is surely wrong? Might those early people perhaps even have found the appropriation of their "namings" offensive?