Apple Maps Now Shows Indigenous Lands in Australia and New Zealand (2025)

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Thursday March 27, 2025 6:49 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Starting today, the Apple Maps app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac now displays Indigenous lands in Australia and New Zealand, such as reserves and protected areas.

In a press release, Apple said the mapping updates were informed by Indigenous peoples, cartographers, language holders, and others in each country.

In Australia, Apple said it referenced language data published by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

In New Zealand, Apple said it collaborated with local Māori tribes and Indigenous cartographers to develop detailed place cards and map icons for Indigenous lands in the country. The place cards feature information about the local area, and communities can update them with destinations, photos, and text in their own languages.

The mapping updates are available now, with no software updates required.

More details about these mapping updates, and Apple's recent community initiatives in Australia and New Zealand, can be found in Apple's press release.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple Maps

[ 46 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

TokyoKiller

3 weeks ago

Nahh...It's more important to posture.

How is it posturing? It’s recognizing what’s really on the ground and making sure the maps reflect that as true to reality as possible.

Technology allows us to do that now and we should do it.

If one sees it as a political posturing, then the issue lies within those who see it that way than Apple simply reflecting what’s on the ground on different parts of states, nations and territories.

Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)

WarmWinterHat

3 weeks ago

I don’t understand why this bothers people so much. The gulf is part of North America. It wasn’t changed to the Gulf of the United States. I’m frankly surprised we haven’t seen licensed naming rights yet, the Gulf of Coca-Cola, Mt McDonalds, etc.

In my experience and travels, Canada and Mexico calls people from the U.S. "Americans". We call ourselves "Americans." It's meant to highlight the word America. They are from north American too, but don't call themselves Americans and don't say they are from America.

The name predates the formation of the United States a couple hundred years, and it's an E.O., so no one voted on it, congress didn't have any hearings. Ruling by decree shouldn't even be a thing in the U.S., which is supposed to be a representative democracy. We don't own the gulf.

..plus, the name will be changed back as soon as Trump is out of office since executive orders have no staying power. They are a lazy tool for lazy presidents.

TLDR: It's dumb.

Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)

gknewell

3 weeks ago

I like how they’ll designate these areas but still caved to the “Gulf of America” crap.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Enlightened Doggo

3 weeks ago

It's weird that nice things like this upset some people. Seems purely good.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

russell_314

3 weeks ago

That’s amazing! Maybe one day they’ll update it to show road construction in the USA ?

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

russell_314

3 weeks ago

I like how they’ll designate these areas but still caved to the “Gulf of America” crap.

The name changed. Apple doesn’t make these decisions. They just list it on the map. It’s like if a street name was changed to something controversial, do you expect Apple Maps to say no we’re not going to change it on our map?

I was upset when they took Pluto off the list of planets, but it is what it is.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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