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The Royal Australian Mint has released a new 50 cent coin and $2 coin celebrating Indigenous languages and commemorating the centennial anniversary of WWI veterans’ repatriation.
50 cent coin
Emblazoned with 14 different Indigenous words for money, this coin has been released to mark the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
The coin was designed by the Royal Australian Mint’s Aleksandra Stokic in consultation with Indigenous language custodian groups.
“In the International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019, Australian Indigenous communities are carrying out concerted work to maintain and revitalise their languages,” the Mint said.
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“This coin, released today, celebrates Australia’s Indigenous languages and their importance to our national heritage.”
According to researchers Felicity Meakins and Michael Walsh from the Universities of Queensland and Sydney, traditional ideas of money did not exist in Australia prior to European colonisation, with wares traded if they were considered a similar worth.
Indigenous words for money are derived from the words for “pebble” or “stone”, like nambal, wumara and walang.
“These Indigenous words are displayed amongst strata that symbolise the layered complexity of Australia’s Indigenous culture and its collective focus on the land as ‘place’ and ‘country’,” the Mint said.
“The empty field within the design poignantly represents the many Indigenous languages that have been lost forever.
“Australian Indigenous communities are carrying out concerted work to maintain and revitalise their languages, many of which are now endangered. With the release of this coin, the Mint and AIATSIS recognise and celebrate the importance of Australia’s Indigenous languages to our national heritage.”
$2 coin
The brightly coloured coin reads “One Hundred Years of Repatriation” and has been released to recognise the 1919 Repatriation Department, tasked with providing pensions, education and training, employment, housing, healthcare and commemorations for soldiers and nurses returned to Australia from the battlefields of WWI.
“One hundred years on, the role of providing this essential support to Australian servicemen and women, and their families, is now carried out by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
“With the release of this coin the Mint recognises the centenary of the vital task of repatriation,” the Mint said.
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