What’s in a name? Quite a bit when we’re commemorating both murders and murderers | Paul Daley

John Batman, Lachlan Macquarie, Angus McMillan – some of the colonial leaders we eulogise and commemorate despite being deeply unworthy

It’s well beyond time we rethought who, as a nation, we’ve eulogised in statuary, bricks, mortar and nomenclature.

History – and many of those who’ve written it for centuries in Australia – has afforded far too much respect to pioneering (mostly) men who’ve been responsible for the mass murder of this continent’s Indigenous people. Such history has been reflected in the dedication of public buildings, the names of streets, suburbs and electorates, and the erection of statues, to precisely the wrong people.

Related: Reuniting Indigenous 'sticks' with their stories: the museum on a mission to give back

Related: Lachlan Macquarie was no humanitarian: his own words show he was a terrorist

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