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'The entire Australian continent was once covered with networks of Indigenous placenames. These names often evoke important information about features of the environment and their place in Indigenous systems of knowledge. On the other hand, placenames assigned by European settlers and officials are largely arbitrary, except for occasional descriptive labels such as ‘river, lake, mountain’. They typically commemorate people, or unrelated places in the Northern hemisphere.'
'In areas where Indigenous societies remain relatively intact, thousands of Indigenous placenames are used, but have no official recognition. Little is known about principles of forming and bestowing Indigenous placenames. Still less is known about any variation in principles of placename bestowal found in different Indigenous groups. While many Indigenous placenames have been taken into the official placename system, they are often given to different features from those to which they originally applied. In the process, they have been cut off from any understanding of their original meanings. Attempts are now being made to ensure that additions of Indigenous placenames to the system of official placenames more accurately reflect the traditions they come from.'
'The eighteen chapters in this book range across all of these issues. The contributors (linguistics, historians and anthropologists) bring a wide range of different experiences, both academic and practical, to their contributions. The book promises to be a standard reference work on Indigenous placenames in Australia for many years to come.' (Source: Publishers website)
Contents
- Indigenous Placenames : An Introduction, single work criticism (p. 1-23)
- The Concept of Place Among the Arrernte, single work criticism (p. 25-41)
- Transparency Verus Opacity in Aboriginal Placenames, single work criticism (p. 43-50)
- Changing Places : European and Aboriginal Styles, single work criticism (p. 51-61)
- Is It Really a Placename?, single work criticism (p. 63-72)
-
On the Translatability of Placenames in the Wik Region, Cape York Peninsula,
single work
essay
'In the late 1980s I obtained Australian Research Council and local Wik organisational funding to compile a database of site records from western Cape York Peninsula between the Embley and Edward Rivers, in a project based at the South Australian Museum. The main field data came from myself (mapping from 1976 onwards), David Martin (mapping from 1985) and John von Sturmer (mapping from 1969). Small amounts also came from fieldwork by Roger Cribb and Athol Chase, who mainly mapped in 1985, although Roger returned to focus more on archaeological mapping and site work later.' (Introduction)
- Names and Naming : Speaking Forms into Place, single work criticism (p. 87-102)
- 'I'm Going to Where-Her-Brisket-Is' : Placemanes in the Roper, single work criticism (p. 103-129)
- The Archaism and Linguistic Connections of Some Yir-Yoront Tract-Names, single work criticism (p. 131-140)
- Some Remarks on Placenames in the Flinders, single work criticism (p. 141-153)
- Blown to WiteWitekalk : Placenames and Cultural Landscapes in North-West Victoria, single work criticism (p. 157-163)
- Weeding Out Spurious Etymologies : Toponyms on the Adelaide Plains, single work criticism (p. 165-180)
- Placenames in Yuwaalaraay, Yuwaaliyaay and Gamilaraay Languages of North-West New South Wales, single work criticism (p. 181-185)
- Naming the Dead Heart : Hillier's Map and Reuther's Gazetteer of 2,468 Placenames in North-Eastern South Australia, single work criticism (p. 187-200)
- 'What Name?' : The Recording of Indigenous Placenames in the Western Desert of South Australia, single work criticism (p. 203-206)
- 'What They Call That in the Whites?' : Ngiyampaa and Other Placenames in a New South Wales Ngurrampaa, single work criticism (p. 207-238)
- Creating Aboriginal Placenames : Applied Philology in Armidale City, single work criticism (p. 241-254)
- Reclaiming Through Renaming : The Reinstatement of Kaurna Toponyms in Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains, single work criticism (p. 255-276)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- also electronic resource
- Northern Territory,
- Victoria,
- South Australia,
- New South Wales,
- Aboriginal place names
- Place names
- Aboriginal Australians
- Linguistics
- Australian landscape
- Names
- Aboriginal languages
- Cartography & geography
- Aboriginal relationship with the land
- Aboriginal Gamilaraay
- Vocabulary & semantics
- Aboriginal land rights & native title
- Adelaide Plains
- Cape York Peninsula
- Aboriginal Kaurna