Little support for Stirling Highway rename petition (original) (raw)

A petition started more than two weeks ago to rename Stirling Highway because it “lacks poetry and connection to country” has been met with little support.

The petition to WA Premier Mark McGowan, aimed to drop the name of the State’s first governor from the main road for a more cultural acceptable name has only received 33 signatures.

Claremont-based anthropologist Emily Egerton-Warburton founded the campaign and claimed Governor James Stirling led the expedition that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Aboriginal men, women and children during the 1834 Pinjarra massacre.

Speaking to 6PR’s Oliver Peterson, Ms Egerton-Warburton said one of Perth's main arterial roads shouldn’t remind people of genocide.

“It’s a shocking memory and a shocking image. I don’t think it’s anything to be proud of and I don’t think it is a memory that easily fades away for Nyoongar people,” she said.