COON: more holes than swiss cheese

An argument has long raged over the name of Australia's COON Cheese. Aboriginal social justice activist Dr Stephen Hagan began a campaign against the name in 1999. For years, brand owners denied the brand name was a slur, stating that the name honoured the inventor of a unique, ripening process used in the production of the cheese, E. W. Coon.
Dr Hagan questioned the veracity of that story. However, various brand owners offered no evidence other than a patent registered by E. W. Coon in the United States in 1926.
Earlier this year, Saputo Dairy of Canada, the latest brand owners, announced they would retire the name.
But the authors of COON: more holes than swiss cheese, Dr Stephen Hagan and Destiny Rogers believe an effective name change would include an honest telling of the brand history. The COON Cheese history and brand engage many Australians. For them to understand why the brand name should change, they deserve facts. Otherwise, we predict, the name will change, and the cheese remain popular, but race relations suffer. Some Australians will resent that Aboriginals allegedly erased history, cancelled Dr E. W. COON and whinged about an imaginary slur.
Earlier in 2020, Dr Hagan teamed up with Destiny Rogers from QNews to investigate the real history of COON Cheese. This book is the result.
The authors describe the previous official brand histories as ‘compiled by someone who thought they were making a cheddar. They grabbed some dates, curdled them, swirled them around in a vat, heated them up, gave them a bit of a stir and then sat them on a shelf to ripen’.