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News – November 2010

First I would like to welcome Colin Jones to the team. He is our Advisor for Aboriginal history, culture and art and it is a great privilege to have him on the Metamorphosoz team. More about him and his achievements on the ‘About’ page.

This month I will take you through the history of ‘words’ and their meaning.
How did Australia get its name? Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernández de Quirós searched for this new land in 1606 while serving in the spanish navy, and called it Austrialia del Espíritu Santo or ‘Great South Land of the Holy Spirit’. The word “Austrialia”, slightly different from the current “Australia”, was a mixture formed by “Austria” (the country of origin of the Habsburg dynasty) and “Austral” (“Southern”). In those times the current nations of Spain and Portugal were under the rule of the same crown. The word Austrialia was intended to be a homage to the ruling monarchs. Different variations on the name were used in many languages. There was, however, a German document dating back to 1545 describing a southern land mass as Australia. (Was Australia Named in 1545?!)

This was great news for me as it gives me an even stronger connection between the two countries and their culture.

Matthew Flinders, who was the first known European explorer to circumnavigate the Australian continent in 1802, is credited with assigning the name ‘Australia’ to this continent although it did not immediately receive universal approval. He first proposed the name “Terra Australis” be adopted instead of “New Holland”, the name by which the Dutch knew Australia, or “New South Wales”, which Cook had named the eastern half when he claimed it for England. In 1814 when Flinders published his work ‘A Voyage to Terra Australis’, he used the term ‘Australia’ within the book. Around 1818, Governor Lachlan Macquarie, arguably the most influential man in Australia at the time, also requested that the name “Australia” be officially ascribed. The name ‘Australia’ was formally adopted in 1824.( Answers.com – How did Australia get its name)

The word ‘aboriginal’, which comes from the Latin ‘ab origine’ (meaning ‘from the beginning’) emerged in 17th century English to mean ‘the original habitants of a land’. As an English word of that era, it also became a colonial word to mean Indigenous people, as opposed to the colonists. The words ‘aboriginal’, ‘aborigine’ and their plurals did not become common until the 1840s, and existed along with ‘blacks’ and ‘natives’, which often became derogatory, and was used until the middle of the 20th century, even in legislation.
For much of its life, ‘aboriginal’ was used without a capital ‘A’, which gave it a derogatory edge. However, it has been capitalized conventionally since the 1960’s, revealing a new level of respect.The term ‘Aboriginal people’ is now preferred to ‘Aborigines’ or ‘Aboriginals’.
(‘Aboriginal Australians’, Richard Broome)

There is still a lot of emotion attached to the word ‘Aboriginal’ and even today its use can trigger strong reactions.

Barbara

News – October 2010

Welcome to our first News.

You are part of the launch of Metamorphosoz, a company that tells the story of the Indigenous People of Australia in different ways. We will use the News for information on the history, past and present, and keeping you up to date with upcoming events.

43 years ago, in 1967, the Aboriginal people of Australia were first recognized as human beings – they received the right to Citizenship, the right to marry of their own choice, the right to live, where they wanted, the right to education of their own choice, the right to seek their own employment, the right for ownership of land….
(1967 Referendum, Australian Government)
“This is not ancient history. I was a child. It still staggers me that for the first 10 years of my life, I existed under the Flora and Fauna Act of NSW.”
(Hon. Linda Burney, MP, first Aboriginal minister NSW, May 2007, Interview Sydney Morning Herald). Then came the 1967 Referendum…when her status was elevated from fauna to citizen.

The original People of Australia experienced years of their families being torn apart by ‘laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments…’. Their children being taken away to institutions, missions, being fostered out or adopted through a law that made the state guardian of ALL indigenous children. The law was supported by the belief that ‘you can breed out the colour’ within three generations and ‘save the children’ from a ‘dying race’.
(A. O. Neville, Chief Protector of Aborigines, Western Australia. “Blood on the Wattle” by Bruce Elder, from Michael Howard’s “Aboriginal Politics in SW Australia”)

‘Our mothers inevitably say that they didn’t want to hurt us. But we also realize that here is where our mothers were hurt most deeply. Here is where they were shamed and humiliated – they were deprived of the opportunity to participate in growing up the next generation. They were made to feel failures; unworthy of loving and caring for their own children; they were denied participation in the future of their community.’
(Link Up, NSW, submission to the 1996 National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families, ‘Broken Circles’, Anna Haebich)

It is their story, their history, and how it relates to you, that we will tell through different mediums. Stay with us, keep in contact – and we are looking forward to meeting you at one of our events in the future.

Barbara