What do the Aborigines of Australia call themselves in their own language(s)? Are they one people, or are they from many nations (or tribes) as First Nations peoples are in Canada and the U.S.?
In wanting to know more about their culture, I’m also very curious about their names and naming practices. Do they have surnames, and what are their first names for males and females like?
Is there a list of modern Australian Aboriginal surnames and given names that I can consult online?
The Australian Aborigines did, and still do in many cases, call themselves by specific tribal names. When Europeans first settled Australia, there were somewhere around 500 different languages among the native peoples, and even now there are close to 200 still surviving.
This page gives the names and locations of some tribes, and if you want to do a comprehensive search you can check out the AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database, where you can search by tribal name, state, or linguistic zones.
In general discussions about Australia’s first inhabitants, the word “Aborigine” is often used, with “Aboriginal” serving as the adjectival form. There are also regional terms which cover specific sections of Australia, but are not specific enough to deal with individual tribes. For example, the indigenous peoples of the states of New South Wales and Victoria often refer to themselves collectively as Koori. Other regional appelations include Murri (from Queensland) and Nunga (from South Australia). There are others, but i can’t remember them now. I’m sure that if you Google you could find out what they are.
I’m no expert on the naming practices of different Aboroginal tribes or groups, particularly their pre-contact practices. All i know is based on my experience hearing some Aboriginal names in the news, and knowing some Aborinial people when i lived in Australia.
The names of Australian Aborigines in modern Australia constitute a rather diverse group. Many have names that are indistinguishable from Europeans, some have obviously Aboriginal names, and some combine European and Aboriginal names.
For example, there’s no way that you could tell by her name alone that political activist and former magistrate Pat O’Shane is an Aborigine. Same with athlete Cathy Freeman.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu, on the other hand, would be instantly identified by most Australians as an Aborigine, based on his name alone.
Neville Bonner’s name seems rather European. Actor David Gulpilil has a European first name and an Aboriginal last name, as does Aussie Rules football player Gavin Wanganeen.
One of Australia’s most famous tennis players had a European first name and an Aboriginal last name. When she married, she kept her last name, but added her husband’s name to the end to become Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
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The names of Australian Aborigines in modern Australia constitute a rather diverse group. Many have names that are indistinguishable from Europeans, some have obviously Aboriginal names, and some combine European and Aboriginal names.
I would like to ask why it is that (seems)a large proportion of Indigenous Australians have completely European names. Like Catherine Freeman , Michael Long, Charles Perkins.
I may be wrong, but it seems that other Indigenous people like Native Americans and Maori have a higher percentage of Indigenous personal names.
I hope this does not seem racist. It is not. I am part -maori and have a European name.
I think it is because the stolen generation kids were all renamed, and having been cut off from their families decided to keep the names. Remember that the half-caste children that were taken away were encouraged to turn their back on their Aboriginal heritage. If one kid decided to leave their Aboriginal side behind it would have been pretty hard for their kids to find out about their lineage.
It’s not just stolen generations. If a man of European descent marries a woman of Aboriginal descent, then the children are going to have the father’s surname, even though they identify as havng Aboriginal heritage. An example is Pat O’shane, whose father was of Irish descent.
There used to be an active policy of taking (especially half-caste) Aboriginal children away from their parents and placing them with (white) foster-families or institutions. I’d imagine renaming went hand in hand with that. See the movie “Rabit-Proof Fence” for a (controversial) take on the policy, or google “Stolen Generation” or “National Sorry Day” for more info.
Was Rabbit Proof Fence controversial? I didn’t really notice much talk about the politics of it.
I was told in a one day seminar on Aboriginal Affairs (a sort of “let’s make sure the Irish girl doesn’t embarrass herself by doing or saying something stupid” course) that I took when I worked in Broken Hill, NSW, to say “Aborigine” and “Aboriginal”.
If the person wishes to be referred to by their tribe or people, they can then tell you, but it is slightly rude to presume that the Aboriginal guy you meet in Brisbane must be Murri, when he might, in fact, be Koori or Nunga or none of the above.
BTW, the instructor on the course was a very nice Aboriginal man from Perth, who was thrilled to find out we had the same last name. I made a joke that my relatives in Ireland were well known for being sheep-stealers and cattle-rustlers, and he made a joke about how the best Irishmen always got sent to Australia.
Also, keep in mind that humans first arrived in Australia much earlier than in the Americas-- ~50,000 years ago for Australia vs ~15,000 years ago for the Americas. That’s a lot of time for a landmass about the size of the lower 48 states. It’s also likely that, unlike the Americas, there was a more or less continuous influx of peoples during those tens of thousands of years. It should be no wonder that hundreds of languages/cultures developed in such a place where hunting/gathering was the dominant lifestyle.
I was going by the wiki article, which mentioned some contention about it.
Only a minority of children were ever removed… (None were stolen as a matter of law.) There is no possible way that the removal of a minority of young chidlren could have had any significant impact at all on Aboriginal names.
The truth is that Aborigines simply adopted European names. In many places that was done willingly and it became a sign of status amongst Aborigines to have English names. Aborigines are recorded as asking to be assigned European names in most places. This incidentally led to some peope being given ‘joke’ names like “Billycan” and “Kneebone” which are still recognisable (though rare) Aboriginal names today.
In other places adoption of a European name was a condition of employment or aid. In most rural areas it was the standard practice for Aborigines to simply adopt the surname of the Europeans on the stations,
Traditional naming methods were only maintained to any significant degree in the Top End and Kimberley regions which were settled very late and where Aborigines retained a larger degree of autonomy.