Dr Stephen Hagan, the man behind push to rename Coon cheese, calls for national audit on offensive and racist place names – including Blackfellows beach in South Australia
- Dr Stephen Hagan battled for 20 years to rename Coon cheese
- He is now calling for an investigation into ‘every public sign’
An academic who successfully campaigned to rename Coon cheese has called for a investigation into offensive ‘redneck’ place names and geographical landmarks across Australia – including a beach that is popular with surfers.
Dr Stephen Hagan, a Queensland-based author and anti-racism campaigner, said there needed to be a state-by-state investigation of ‘every public sign’.
‘We need to highlight and red flag signs that are offensive… take it to the Traditional Owners of the area and ask them if they are offended by it,’ he told The Advertiser.
‘If the answer is “yes”, ask them to nominate a word to replace it and then go about formalising it … if there is a sign First Nations people view as being offensive or derogatory, take it down – it is not hard to do.
Dr Hagan (pictured) battled for two decades to have the name of Coon cheese changed
Dr Stephen Hagan, a Queensland-based author and anti-racism campaigner, said there needed to be a state-by-state investigation of ‘every public sign’, including Blackfellows Point in South Australia (pictured)
‘It’s time for Australia to join with the rest of the world … there is no place for views that are outdated or redneck in outlook.’
An example Dr Hagan pointed to was Blackfellows beach, a popular surf spot in South Australia.
Its name is believed to be a reference to a nearby massacre in 1849, where dozens of Wirangu people were marched off a cliff.
The left-hand break at Blackfellows Point is notoriously dangerous. In 2000, 17-year-old Jevan Wright was eaten by a Great White while surfing there.
Dr Hagan said it was ‘not good enough to just wait for complaints’.
‘These complaints get lost in the system and it can take years for any action to happen,’ he said.
Dr Hagan battled for two decades to have the name of Coon cheese changed.
In 2001, activists started a campaign to have the name changed because of what they said was its racist connotations.
Coon’s owners Saputo finally gave in and announced the name change to Cheer in 2021.
An example Dr Hagan pointed to was Blackfellows beach, a popular surf spot in South Australia (stock image)
Coon cheese announced its name change to Cheer in 2020 following the global Black Lives Matter protests – and years of campaigning by Dr Hagan
‘I said that the cheese brand was offensive, I said that it demeans people of colour,’ Dr Hagan told the ABC at the time.
In 2020, Saputo Dairy Australia, which owns the brand, finally renamed it Cheer cheese in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.
Dr Hagan hailed the move as a ‘total vindication of 20 years of campaigning’.
The activist also won an appeal before the United Nations to re-name a sports stadium in his home-state the E S ‘N****r’ Brown Grand.
‘I (also) sued Mattel for a Scrabble game that included (derogatory) terms such as ‘abo’ and ‘coon’ … that’s now been changed,’ Dr Hagan said.
