The Indigenous knowledge-holder said it's time for the community to have a conversation about giving heavily-Indigenous communities like Coledale names that reflect the people who live there.

The change would be among the first steps to implementing a local dual-naming policy for landmarks across the Tamworth region, including the city itself.

Mr Fields is the spokesperson for a new group dedicated to "restoring" Indigenous language to the region.

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The senior Gomeroi culture and language advisor said European names like the Peel River, Coledale and even Tamworth itself don't have relevance to modern, progressive Australia.

"It's certainly timely that serious conversations are had among our mob. We're not going to change the name of Tamworth city in the next five or 10 years. But let's start renaming and dual-naming some of these important social and cultural sites, not just traditional Gomeroi sites, but contemporary sites," he said.

"So in these communities where we see these streets of predominantly Indigenous people, let's give them the option to rename the streets they live in."

Dual-naming, the practice of adding an additional traditional Indigenous name to landmarks is decades old.

In probably Australia's most famous dual-naming, Ayers Rock was given a second name, Uluru, in 1993.

The idea is to gradually reverse an earlier colonial-era process of renaming Indigenous sites with European names, as an act of reconciliation. Often the colonial names are either racist and hurtful - Battle Mountain, Blackfellow Creek, Black Gin Creek, among others - or just meaningless and irrelevant.

Both the Peel River and the city of Tamworth are named after British politician Robert Peel, the member for Tamworth. He was British Prime Minister from 1841 to 1846, died in 1850, and never visited Australia.

"You can understand why that [name] was important 140 years ago," Mr Fields said.

"Those times are well gone. Tamworth is not the place it was 160 years ago. It's not the place it was 50 years ago."

He said it's time to throw off the "shackles" of our colonial history and be recognised as a modern city.

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Mr Fields said the best place to start was by giving a new Tamworth industrial estate an Indigenous name.

And he said the heavily Indigenous community of Coledale in particular should have an opportunity to rename their suburb, their streets and other landmarks.

There are also a number of natural landmarks, including the Paradise Pools, Duri Street water hole, the Peel River, and a number of other sacred sites that would be obvious targets for dual-naming, he said.

Any reform would need to have the consent of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Tamworth, he said. Another bottleneck is the historic research to uncover traditional names.

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