It does seem all very Soviet. New regime: new names. Don't mention Trotsky in the old Russia - or Sirius in the new Australia.
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The soon-to-be-renamed Sirius Building in Woden was commissioned precisely to commemorate the flagship of the First Fleet.
That was the brief to the architect: the meeting rooms above the magnificent building's main entrance were designed to resemble the stern of the colonisers' ship. The slope (or "rake" as the architects call it) is the same - by design. The Sirius theme is repeated throughout the building.
The original idea stemmed from the Howard years when commemorating the First Fleet and the birth of modern Australia was acceptable. The thought then was that certainly terrible deeds were committed by the colonisers but that they also brought new wondrous technologies and ways of thinking (technologies which eventually produced the fabulous offices soon not to be known as the Sirius Building). That was the zeitgeist of the time.
It is not the zeitgeist of our times, or not among some of the public servants at the soon-to-be renamed Sirius Building.
But where will it end? The names of ships in the first fleets are all over the area - by design. The wider suburb is known as Phillip - the first governor of the colony, and the first captain of the not-to-be-mentioned Sirius.
Red Hill is full of First Fleet ship names like Golden Grove and Fishburn Street. Scarborough House is another Department of Health building which seems to have escaped the attention of the renamers despite its association with HMS Scarborough.
There is Surprize Place (there was a z in the name of the Second Fleet ship).
Are we to rename all of them? Try telling the residents.
Or what about Macquarie as in Macquarie Bank? After all, Major-General Lachlan Macquarie got blood on his hands, while and before he was the governor of the new colony.
I did ask the bank whether a rethink was underway. "Might the bank consider changing its name!?" I asked (the exclamation mark indicating a tongue in cheek.)
They declined to comment.
But should the name be excised from our streets, universities and, yes, banks? Where would that leave Macquarie Primary School in Macquarie?
It seems to me that names which genuinely and deeply offend should go. The names of people with terrible histories after massacres remain on signs across country Australia - and they need removal.
In Armidale, there is still a Dangar Street, and Henry Dangar did his best to prevent the men who committed the Myall Creek massacre from facing justice. What grim signal does the name Dangar on an Armidale street sign send to local Aboriginal people?
But some common sense is also needed. There is white middle-class activism afoot and it should be resisted.
History happened. We cannot change it by erasing names associated with terrible events. Sometimes the name reminds us of an evil that happened (think with a chill of Murdering Gully in Victoria or Massacre Waterfall deep in western New South Wales).
Change a name which is deeply offensive but not just if well-off white people want to signal a bit of virtue.
Is anybody really offended by the name Sirius today?