Australian Tagging Guidelines/Australia's First Peoples
Overview
The First Peoples of Australia have called this continent home for tens of thousands of years prior to European colonisation, and the indigenous community continues to hold a strong connection to ![[W]](/w/images/2/24/Wikipedia-16px.png "Wikipedia"){kind=small}
Country. Indigenous ownership and management of land has developed into many different forms of recognition (for example, Native Title). OpenStreetMap is not a forum for politics but a means for understanding, and editors should always be conscious of the rights and wishes of First Peoples.
| We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the lands of Australia, and acknowledge and pay our respect to their Elders, past and present. |
Cultural Heritage
First Peoples have the right to control their cultural heritage and intellectual property. Each Traditional Owner group and Indigenous community is unique and have differing views on how their culture should be shared and recorded. There is no single rule about what can, and cannot be published. When contributing to OpenStreetMap, editors should always be respectful of the First Peoples community, their language and their wishes.
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.
— Article 31– United Nations
Indigenous Languages and Place Names
There is no single, unified Indigenous language in Australia. While there were once at least 250 different used across the continent, there are less than 100 Australian Aboriginal languages in use. Many Indigenous communities do not want their language used or recorded without their consent. Protected Indigenous intellectual property, including place names, must be sourced in accordance with the OSM License, as with any other piece of data. If you are in doubt about the appropriateness of including an Indigenous place name into OpenStreetMap, reach out to the Australian Mapping Community.
Mapping Indigenous Names
- For more details on this topic, see Multilingual names.
Indigenous names can be mapped by appending the ISO 639 code of the language or dialect to the name=* key.
Pitjantjatjara name in OpenStreetMap: Lasseter's Cave
Lasseter's Cave.pjt is the ISO 639-3 code for the dialect.Almost all indigenous languages have a unique ISO 639 code, and can be found on in the ISO639-3 list. Rarely, an Indigenous language may not have an applicable ISO 639 code. In these cases, the generic "Australian Aboriginal Language" code aus can be used. This code does not refer to a specific Indigenous language, but can be used where a more precise suffix is not available. When the aus code is used, adding the name of the language in a note=* tag may assist future mappers further refining the language suffix.
| Language | Code | Usage | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Aboriginal Language (non-specific) | aus |
||
| Cocos Malay |
coa |
||
| Torres Strait Creole |
tcs |
||
| Pitcairn-Norfolk |
pih |
Norfuk Ailen (Norfolk Island) Norfuk Ailen (Norfolk Island)
| |
| Australian Kriol |
rop |
||
| Gurindji Kriol |
gjr |
Sacred Sites and Places
Exercise extreme care and discretion when mapping sites of significant Indigenous importance, such as rock art, scar trees, fish and eel traps, birthing trees, burial sites, and other sacred places. Aboriginal sacred sites are afforded significant legal protection in all jurisdictions, and access to many sacred sites is heavily restricted by traditional owner groups. Only map sacred sites that are signposted or have been publicly advertised. Sacred sites that are not public knowledge should only be mapped after consultation with the local traditional owners. You must respect the wishes of traditional owners when asked not to include sites on the map. If you are in doubt about the appropriateness of including an Indigenous sacred place into OpenStreetMap, or are considering engaging with a traditional owner group, please contact the Australian Mapping Community or local OSM Foundation chapter for Australia: OSGeo Oceania}}
Importing Indigenous data sets
 | Before importing any data please read the import guidelines and engage with the Australian Mapping Community. |
In addition to the OSM-wide import guidelines, datasets relating to First Nations peoples should be undertaken with extra care. Indigenous place data may have been incorrectly recorded or identified, and introducing those inaccuracies to OpenStreetMap may cause offence.
First Peoples land boundaries
There are many different forms of recognition and ownership of land by Australia's First Peoples, which is further complicated by the overlapping state/territory and federal legislation.
Indigenous Protected Areas
Indigenous Protected Areas are areas where traditional owners of land enter into a voluntary agreement to manage conservation efforts. They should be mapped using a combination of standard OSM tags boundary=protected_area and protect_class=6. When the data is sourced from the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database, ref:capad:pa_id=* is also used to identify the area.
boundary=protected_area
protect_class=6
ref:capad:pa_id=CWTH_IPA63
8341013.Traditional Ownership Boundaries
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This section of the guidelines is still under consideration. Join the discussion |
Traditional Ownership boundaries are not currently included in OpenStreetMap, and accordingly there is no established tagging method for such boundaries. Due to the potential cultural sensitivities and license restrictions, please consult the Australian Mapping Community before mapping these boundaries.
Native Title Boundaries
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This section of the guidelines is still under consideration. Join the discussion |
Native Title boundaries are not currently included in OpenStreetMap, and accordingly there is no established tagging method for such boundaries. The tags boundary=protected_area and protect_class=24 have been proposed as an appropriate tagging scheme for these features.
Due to the potential cultural sensitivities and license restrictions, please consult the Australian Mapping Community before mapping these boundaries.
Aboriginal Reservations
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This section of the guidelines is still under consideration. Join the discussion |
The established OSM tag boundary=aboriginal_lands has not been adopted in Australia. The tag is used to define the boundaries of indigenous "reservations", such as Indian reservations in the United States, which do not have a modern equivalent in Australia. (The closest equivalent in Australia— Aboriginal reserves—were eliminated in the 1960s)
For this reason, usage of the boundary=aboriginal_lands is strongly discouraged.