Luise Hercus, Flavia Hodges and Jane Simpson (eds)
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.
The cover image, Map of the Murrinh-patha countryside, by Nym Parntak (Bunduk), 1959, is reproduced courtesy of the copyright holder, Aboriginal Artists Agency (Sydney), Mrs W.E. H. Stanner, and the South Australian Museum. s
Published by Pandanus Books, in association with Pacific Linguistics
The book was launched on 6 December 2002 by Professor Francesca Merlan at the Australian Placenames Colloquium, Australian National University, sponsored by Pandanus Books and the Australian National Placenames Survey
To order, contact Thelma Simms thelma.sims@anu .edu.au at Pandanus Books or (for the book trade only) the trade distributors, Unireps, at http://www.unireps.com.au/Catalogue.htm
OVERVIEW
1. Indigenous placenames: an introduction Luise Hercus and Jane Simpson
2. The concept of place among the Arrernte David Wilkins
3. Transparency versus opacity in Aboriginal placenames Michael Walsh
4. Changing places: European and Aboriginal styles Patrick McConvell
5. Is it really a placename? Luise Hercus
DOCUMENTING PLACENAMES
6. On the translatability of placenames in the Wik region, Cape York Peninsula Peter Sutton
7. Names and naming: speaking forms into place Franca Tamisari
8. 'I'm going to where-her-brisket-is': placenames in the Roper Brett Baker
9. The archaism and linguistic connections of some Yir-Yoront tract-names Barry Alpher
10. Some remarks on placenames in the Flinders Bernhard Schebeck
RECONSTRUCTING PLACENAMES SYSTEMS
11. Blown to Witewitekalk: placenames and cultural landscapes in north-west Victoria Edward Ryan
12. Weeding out spurious etymologies: toponyms on the Adelaide plains Rob Amery
13. Placenames in Yuwaalaraay, Yuwaaliyaay and Gamilaraay languages ofnorth-west New South Wales Anna Ash
14. Naming the Dead Heart: Hillier's map and Reuther's Gazetteer of 2,468 placenames in north-eastern South Australia Philip Jones
INTERACTION BETWEEN THE TWO PLACENAMES SYSTEMS
15. 'What name?': The recording of Indigenous placenames in the western desert of South Australia Paul Monaghan
16. 'What they call that in the whites?' Ngiyampaa and other placenames in a New South Wales ngurrampaa Tamsin Donaldson
ASSIGNING AND REINSTATING PLACENAMES
17. Creating Aboriginal placenames: applied philology in Armidale City Nicholas Reid
18. Reclaiming through renaming: the reinstatement of Kaurna toponyms in Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains Rob Amery and Georgina Yambo Williams
APPENDIX
Guidelines for the recording and use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander placenames Committee for Geographical names in Australasia
© 2002 Luise Hercus, Flavia Hodges and Jane Simpson Last changed 12 December2002