Thanks for the link to your most interesting article, Maurits.
When people started using Rakali for Water Rat, two things came to mind:
1) Is it disrespectful to the local Aboriginal people to use a word from
the Murray-Darling area for the species, rather than the local
Aboriginal name for it? and
2) How should we deal with plurals? Use the plural name from that
distant language (if known), or use the English language's approach to
plurals, which seems contrary to the whole idea of using Aboriginal
names.
Obviously there are heaps of other matters requiring sensitive attention
in any re-naming proposals, be they focusing on moving to Aboriginal
names, or on eliminating eponyms (something named after a person)
generally or in cases where we are uncomfortable about what is known or
suspected or believed about a long-dead person's values, attitudes and
behaviour.
Christmas greetings to all list members - David
On 2022-12-22 17:25, Maurits Zwankhuizen via Canberrabirds wrote:
> In the hope of generating even more discussion, people might be
> interested in my 2017 Australian Geographic article [2] about giving
> more animals Aboriginal names.
>
> While some may say these are superficial changes, they're actually all
> an integral part of the cultural change necessary to make those bigger
> changes stick.
>
> And wouldn't you rather be swooped by a coolbardie than a magpie? :)
>
> Regards
>
> Maurits Zwankhuizen
>
> -------------------------
>
> From: Canberrabirds <>
> on behalf of Richard Allen via Canberrabirds
> <>
> Sent: Thursday, 22 December 2022 12:25 PM
> To: Geoffrey Dabb <>
> Cc: Canberrabirds <>
> Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Not much going on, but ...
>
> Very interesting to see how our so called civilised culture can get so
> precious about superficial matters when we’d be better off focussing
> on attitudes and issues that currently thrive in our society. Yes we
> can’t change our past so why not engage in constructive change in
> society now rather than attempt to right past wrongs with token
> gestures.
>
> Birds they’re easy. How about butterflies. Jezebel, admiral,
> emperor… shudder.
>
> Richard
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 22 Dec 2022, at 12:11 pm, Geoffrey Dabb <>
>> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> All relevant comments. The case for change is outlined in the
>> attached article. A mistake in it, as made by others as well, is
>> that ‘King’ (as in King-Parrot) and ‘Regent’ are said to be
>> references to ‘colonial power structures’. They are in a way,
>> but not in the sense intended. The persons commemorated were
>> Governor King and the Prince Regent (see Fraser & Gray). Therefore,
>> if the inquiry is into the suitability of particular people, you
>> would need to look into the reputation of Governor King and the
>> Prince Regent (later George VI).
>>
>> A point made in discussions on this is that something of a
>> generational divide is appearing, with older people being more
>> attached to established names. However if the case for change is
>> really so compelling a great many names for different things would
>> have to be changed, as Don points out. Should ALL person-based
>> names be eliminated. Why just birds?
>>
>> From: <>
>> Sent: Thursday, 22 December 2022 9:20 AM
>> To: 'Geoffrey Dabb' <>; 'Canberrabirds'
>> <>
>> Subject: RE: Spam:*********, [Canberrabirds] Not much going on, but
>> ...
>>
>> Names DO matter, but not just birds, surely? What about e.g.
>> Banksias? And those of us mammals called Mitchell, Horsfield, etc,
>> should also have our names changed.
>>
>> Excellent contribution thank you Geoffrey. It should provoke some
>> interesting discussion. Happy Christmas time everyone.
>>
>> From: Canberrabirds
>> <> On Behalf Of
>> Geoffrey Dabb
>> Sent: Thursday, 22 December 2022 8:17 AM
>> To: Canberrabirds <>
>> Subject: Spam:*********, [Canberrabirds] Not much going on, but ...
>>
>> I notice that this chatline is going through one of its quieter
>> periods. Here is some news, then. There is a debate going on within
>> Birdlife Australia about whether to eliminate all personal bird
>> names, that is English bird names that refer to people. Example are
>> Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo and
>> Australia King-Parrot. The reason is that people see a strong case
>> to change some names, like the Major’s cockatoo, but no easy way
>> to decide whether other names recalling Australia’s colonial past
>> should remain or go. There is a similar debate going on in North
>> America. This is not an easy matter to resolve, as there are so
>> many opinions out there. More will be heard about this, I’m sure.
>>
>>
>> To offer a little graphic relief, I have the below observation from
>> last week, from the backyard.
>>
>> I’m pretty sure ‘Rainbow Lorikeet’ is not a personal name,
>> but, as there is a strong generational flavour in all this, anyone
>> with a 1980s childhood might see the Rainbow Brite connection.
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp74T9b4Z40&ab_channel=CartoonIntros
>> [1]
>>
>> <Garnett et al 2022 common names for birds and societal change.pdf>
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> Links:
> ------
> [1]
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DPp74T9b4Z40%26ab_channel%3DCartoonIntros&data=05%7C01%7C%7C6191f2b6737746055cd508dae3bb82d0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638072691757888184%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zOh9sxXg9kJJzW%2FnRv%2F2FcEDhN5TCJ2t5j%2BQyDE8Tx0%3D&reserved=0
> [2]
> https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2017/08/native-animals-should-be-renamed-with-their-aboriginal-names/?fbclid=IwAR0R31LjIu-pybJ1hKW6x-JH4zLzMTUh5_nwCwkmW5yv1Cw0XVj4UlEIAFY
> [3]
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au%2Farchives%2Fhtml%2Fcanberrabirds&data=05%7C01%7C%7C6191f2b6737746055cd508dae3bb82d0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638072691757888184%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=h7xRi2TLNeeVjb7zBWD%2FzGPcz2rFS7%2BIxrCnTLaL6cQ%3D&reserved=0
> [4]
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.canberrabirds.org.au%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fcanberrabirds&data=05%7C01%7C%7C6191f2b6737746055cd508dae3bb82d0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638072691757888184%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=a8xUo5zAHeagd1UZitkbl9XosHgbEGYalx0xu5U1YI0%3D&reserved=0
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