The initiative came about when Sandra O’Connor from the volunteer sustainability team raised the suggestion at a district staff meeting. The initiative gained the support of the acting operations manager Justin Dally and all staff were in favour of renaming the meeting rooms. Some suitable names were provided by the Taungurung Clans Aboriginal Corporation.
A survey was then conducted where the District 12 staff voted for their favourite names.
The names that were chosen for the meeting rooms are Buk – meaning gathering of people from vast places and the other meeting room was named Bundjil – meaning Wedge tail eagle. An opening ceremony was conducted where regional controller Peter Creak was the master of ceremonies and a welcome to country was performed by Taungurung Elder Aunty Lee Healy.
Aunty Lee is a linguist and expert in the Taungurung language. She is also the author of the Taungurung dictionary and has just completed writing the Taungurung grammar book.
Over morning tea Aunty Lee and Shane Monk of the Taungurung Clan Aboriginal Corporation treated the guests to an impromptu language and culture lesson.
