Australian National University Student Media Inc. (ANUSM) currently trades and publishes under the name ‘Woroni’. Woroni is a word which was stolen from the Wadi Wadi nation by Editors in 1950 without consultation or recognition. The Wadi Wadi language is now extinct which has made various attempts at consultation on the use of the name over the last 5 years challenging, this however is no excuse. In the middle of 2020 ANUSM began recognising the theft of the word publicly in the Acknowledgement of Country on the back of the Woroni magazine.
This year we have once again attempted consultation with the Murray and Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations on the name, however the ANUSM Board strongly believes that the association should be a democratic, student led, and informed organisation. In light of this, we will be holding an open discussion immediately following our Annual General Meeting on the 29th of April 2024. The AGM begins at 6:30pm and is likely to run for approximately 30 minutes so we anticipate this discussion to begin at approximately 7:00pm. The discussion will not take place as a part of the AGM as we do not expect there to be a final resolution on the topic that night and the structure of a General Meeting does not provide the same opportunity for discussion as we think would be productive.
For some additional context, ANUSM is an incorporated association and thus it and its directors are legally bound by its constitution. Currently section 14.2 of the ANUSM Constitution requires that “The Association must manage print and media platforms with the masthead Woroni.” Given this we cannot begin publishing under another name until the members of ANUSM have approved a change to the constitution and this change has been ratified by ANU Council. All ANU students are automatically members of ANUSM and are invited to participate in this discussion.
Details of the discussion will be released in due course. We acknowledge that not everyone with an opinion on the matter will be willing or able to attend the discussion and so encourage anyone to contact the Editor-in-Chief at woronieic@gmail.com if you would like to contribute your thoughts to the discussion.
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Woroni, Woroni Radio and Woroni TV are created, edited, published, printed and distributed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the name Woroni was taken from the Wadi Wadi Nation without permission, and we are striving to do better for future reconciliation.