Fraser Island no more: K’gari’s official name change corrects a historic wrong

For almost 200 years, the world’s largest sand island has been known as Fraser Island. But for the Butchulla people, it has and always will be known as K’gari.

On Wednesday, hundreds of traditional owners gathered in the ancient forests of K’gari as rain drenched the sand, washing away the island’s colonial title.

Smoke from a nearby fire wafted through the towering trees as the Butchulla people danced and sang, celebrating the official reinstatement of the island’s name to K’gari (pronounced gurri).

Related: ‘Fraser Island’ to be dropped in favour of Indigenous name K’gari under Queensland proposal

“K’gari is having a cry because it’s a special day,” said Butchulla man, Conway Burns.

Gayle Minniecon, chair of the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, said the new title – which translates to paradise in the local language – is “just amazing”.

“I bet there aren’t many that don’t have tears in their eyes at the moment,” she said.

“We have chased away the bad spirits and now have the protection of the good spirits.”

Each year hundreds of thousands of people visit the island, which possesses half the world’s freshwater dune lakes and is renowned for its dingo population.

The move to reinstate the island’s Indigenous name came after a decades-long campaign by traditional owners and a partial victory in 2017, when the island’s Great Sandy national park was renamed K’gari.

Since 2011, K’gari has been recognised as an alternative name for what was Fraser Island, but now the latter has been dropped entirely.

K’gari was originally known by Europeans as Great Sandy Island before it was changed to Fraser Island, after Scotswoman Eliza Fraser was shipwrecked there in the 1830s.

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The name had been deemed culturally inappropriate as Fraser wrote a debunked negative tale of her “captivity” by the Butchulla people, who she called “savages” and “cannibals”, after the shipwreck. The lies spread throughout the English colony despite being contradicted by fellow survivors.

Minniecon said the move corrects a historic wrong for the Butchulla people who live by three key lores: what is good for the land must come first; if you have plenty you must share; and do not touch or take anything that does not belong to you.

“It was through disrespect to the Butchulla people that her name K’gari – the home of the Butchulla people – was taken away,” Minniecon said.

“Thankfully it is now through respect to the Butchulla people that K’gari – her name – has been reclaimed.

“Our oral history, our creation story will now be told and learnt as it should be.

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said she was proud to “officially welcome K’gari home, and reinstate the name used by traditional owners all these years”.

“While steps like these can’t change the wrongs of the past, it goes a long way to building a future where all Queenslanders value, trust and respect each other,” she said.

“This always was and always will be Butchulla Country.”

Queensland’s minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships, Leeanne Enoch, said: “As Queensland continues on its Path to Treaty, the lands, placenames and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will form a much greater part of our shared experience.”

The Butchulla people were granted native title rights over part of the island in 2014.

Related: Fighting for Fraser Island: how tourism and climate change put an ancient environment at risk

For the Butchulla people, K’gari is the creation story of the extraordinary island that is home to lakes and beaches. K’gari was the spirit princess who helped create the island and then fell in love with it, deciding to rest there for ever.

The story goes that lakes on the island were created so the princess could look up to the heavens, thick flora was created to clothe her and animals born to keep her company.

Yindingie, the creator spirit, then created the Butchulla people to protect the paradise.

Campaigners have fought hard to end logging and mining on the extraordinary island. But concerns remain about eco-tourism and the impact of global heating.

Scientists have dated K’gari and the nearby Cooloola Sand Mass in south-east Queensland as forming between 700,000 and 1.2m years ago.

Their formation was “a necessary precondition for initiation of the southern and central Great Barrier Reef”, the researchers found.