Aboriginal Place Naming

Aboriginal Lore rule for Place - For a place to be a place according to Aboriginal Lore it is one of two things - either sacred or ceremonial - no exceptions.

My Aboriginal people name places based on what happened there - was this where our original creation beings travelled, fought, became wounded, gifted survival resources, became unwell, got diarrhea etc. To know how to name any place you have to know Lore and its teachings. You have to know which Creation Ancestor is connected to another (its kinship), who are its enemies and kinship, what this powerful beings inner purpose is and why and how they travelled there. Is it still living there or has it gone to another place?

We do not name a place after frivolous things like - Yariah - said to mean by Colonial linguist as "hot", or Barega which again is mistranslated as just wind. Without the Aboriginal Creator inclusive translation of these names they cannot be considered living Lore language.

Our clever old people used codes or covers in a desperate attempt to protect their sacred places. Next time you see Licking place or lightening tree on a map, know that this is code for a deeply sacred place and there are hundreds of tricks names just like these ones above.

In my research team we have found that every Dhurarra (clan) area within a language speaking country has nearly half of its land area allocated to ritual or ceremonial activity places. No permanent camps were located within these sacred areas.

As a completely Oral System, our teachings (Dreaming according to Colonial written history) always included many knowledge lessons within them. Up to three levels of teachings about the same Creator - each one deeper then the next. If you do not have enough knowledge of Lore you cannot translate or realise their meanings.

Aboriginal language has Universal Lore Linguistic Rules established by our genius ancestors to not only give us memory cues to remember and recall a vast array of knowledge, but also for us humans to know which level of Lore this word is, what is its kinship and how we can express it.

Pama Nyungan Language Rules – In a Nutshell

• Pama Nyungan Language Rules are essential as a reference framework to correctly express Ancient First People Creation Lore standards and philosophy for how to live right within the Universe.
• In prescriptive grammar, Pama Nyungan Language Rules are oral expressions regarding the conventional forming of words and sentences in all languages from the Pama Nyungan Language family.
• Learning the aforementioned language rules is necessary before anyone can speak and teach about First People Systems coherently and accurately according to First People’s (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Creation Lore.

What? is language for -

English language functions refers to the individual purposes for which humans use language, such as to inform, persuade, or entertain. It is very much human centric, and very much sender focused.

?Some common language functions/rules of the English Language include:

1.?????? Informing: Giving information, such as explaining a process or presenting facts.

2.?????? Requesting: Asking someone to do something or provide information.

3.?????? Suggesting: Proposing an idea or recommendation.

4.?????? Narrating: Telling a story or relating a series of events.

5.?????? Arguing: Presenting a point of view with the intent of convincing the listener or reader.

6.?????? Describing: Providing details about a person, place, thing, or event.

How Aboriginal people’s language functions to express how their Universal Kinship is anchored in their Lore relationship to the universe, in the hope that they can achieve an idealogical afterlife in the outer skyworld camps.

Each language (group) has its own special way of interpreting or expressing that world; however the underpinning critical framework teachings of the 3 expressions of Aboriginal life (Modesty, Mutualism and Courage) within the one Lore system remains the same across this mighty country.

Some common language functions (rules) of the receiver focused Aboriginal Language include:

1.?????? Informing: To show a living thing’s relationship symbolically & explicitly within the realms of the universe

2.?????? Describing: To honour the inner purpose of all things according to Lore.

3.?????? Permission: To understand if something is Public or Creation Lore?

4.?????? Requesting: Use indirect or contextual Communication

5.?????? Causality: Localised cause and effect teaching style

Aboriginal people (all oral based Indigenous societies) believe Language is how your Ancestral (subconscious) brain tells you to interpret the world that has been created by Sky and Earth bound spiritual beings over many thousands of years.?The knowledge you hold within is from your Ancestors and not yours.

Aboriginal people know the spirit memory of all those ancestors is sung into you by the earthbound Spiritual Messengers from those Creation beings who sit in the Sky world.

Aboriginal Language is about living things, honouring their purpose, it is emotive, it is how things relate to each other and how they express their place within their universal kinship according to this lands Original Creation and Public Lore.?

Each of the two Lore Systems has its own language rules and structure.?

It would be amazing if we (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous) all could stay within our own Language systems lanes. Let Aboriginal people translate and keep sacred their Oral Lore system (languages) and you can very much keep translating, changing and pulling apart your written system's words of English.

Nola Turner-Jensen is a Wiradyuri Oral System Geographer and researcher Inclusion and Diversity Fellow Science Faculty, University of Melbourne [email protected]