How to capitalise when writing about Indigenous Australia

This week in Australia is NAIDOC Week (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee Week). From July 3rd to July 10th, we celebrate the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and recognise both their grief and triumphs.

How to capitalise with respect

We tend to capitalise words in a way that shows respect or reverence. You might remember this from the lesson on capitalising job titles. We over-capitalise job titles (like "He's an Animal Rights Lawyer" or "I work as a Graphic Designer") because they seem important and officious although often job titles don’t need capitals.

But capitals do serve an important purpose in English. Other languages have innate structures that convey respect such as hierarchical pronouns or formal and informal variations. In English, we have capitals. Capitals are used to show the difference between an apple in a fruit bowl and Apple, the company.

Capitalising is a function of acknowledgement, a way to enshrine a word’s legitimacy as a proper noun, a name, a place, a person, a title. There’s a school of thought that believes the structure of our language and the restrictions built into it also restrict the way we see, categorise, and interact with the world. It’s true that if you don’t have a word to describe something, that thing exists outside of your language, your culture, and. often. your history. Never forget language has the power to shape the world.

Properly capitalising is a small sign of respect for Indigenous culture. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of words you should capitalise when writing about Indigenous Australia.

Indigenous and Aboriginal

Both of these words can function as adjectives in an international context but when referring to Indigenous or Aboriginal people in Australia, they are proper nouns and need to be capitalised.

Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country

A Welcome to Country is a ritual of welcoming. Only a First Nations person, usually an Elder, can perform a Welcome to Country. An Acknowledgement of Country is a statement anyone can make to pay respect to the First Nations people on the land where you're meeting. Both Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country are proper nouns that need capitalising.

Elder or Elders

Whenever using the world Elder in relation to Indigenous Australia, it should be capitalised to convey the respect the title warrants.

Nation

When used as part of a First Nations place name, Nation should always be capitalised. For example: "The Eora Nation consists of 29 language groups".

Country

In Indigenous culture, Country has a meaning beyond what the word in English conveys.

"Country is the term often used by Aboriginal peoples to describe the lands, waterways and seas to which they are connected. The term contains complex ideas about law, place, custom, language, spiritual belief, cultural practice, material sustenance, family and identity." - AIATSIS.

TL:DR? The way you format and structure sentences can be used to convey respect when writing about Indigenous Australia.