Issue Details: First known date: 2002... 2002 On the Translatability of Placenames in the Wik Region, Cape York Peninsula
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia Luise Anna Hercus (editor), Jane Helen Simpson (editor), Flavia Hodges (editor), Canberra : Pandanus Books , 2002 6906375 2002 selected work criticism

    '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)

    Canberra : Pandanus Books , 2002
    pg. 75-86
Last amended 16 Feb 2018 10:48:47
75-86 On the Translatability of Placenames in the Wik Region, Cape York Peninsulasmall AustLit logo
Subjects:
  • Cape Keerweer, North West Queensland, Queensland,
  • Cape York Peninsula, Queensland,
  • Aboriginal Wik Mungkan AIATSIS Code: Y57 QLD language
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