Aboriginal names

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Now_To_Morrow
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Aboriginal names

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 07 July 22 8:10 pm

I was just looking at the dZ icon facades dreaming of my next purchase. Seeing the Kiwi had a name in brackets made me, well google it first, and then think about adding aboriginal names for the native fauna facades. Like

Gangurru for kangaroo
Gula or Kulla for koala
Boondaburra platypus

Apparently wombat wouldn't need adding to as its the same.

Just a thought, and maybe much easier thought than done as there are numerous aboriginal dialects to choose from for some animals.

Thoughts?

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caughtatwork
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Re: Aboriginal names

Post by caughtatwork » 08 July 22 9:47 am

I appreciate your very thought provoking question and thank you for putting the item up for some discussion.

We have looked at first nations recognition in the past. Most recently we looked at whether we could create a map showing the first nations boundaries until we realised that boundaries does not always apply to first nations people like they for the European settlements. We made a decision that these would likely be of interest to the community on a generalised nature but they could be upsetting for first nations people if we drew an incorrect conclusion about the boundary line. We decided at the end of the day that the benefit did not outweigh the potential detriment.

Apteryx is the scientific name for the Kiwi. i.e. It's not an Māori term from the people of Aotearoa. A quick google tells me that would be "ngutu roa" (apologies if that's wrong).
Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand of the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae. Approximately the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites. Wikipedia
Scientific name: Apteryx
Higher classification: Apterygidae
Order: Apterygiformes; Haeckel, 1866
Family: Apterygidae; Gray, 1840
Rank: Genus
Infraclass: Palaeognathae
To start to give names to geocaching related activities and items that relate to their first nations names we would need to apply a name for the languages that may have different words.
e.g. The word Kangaroo comes from the Guugu Yimithirr language which is spoken in far north Queensland. The word is also one of the first Aboriginal words ever recorded by British explorers. When spelling the word with traditional pronunciation, the word would be spelled as “gangurru”.
If my google searches come up with the right information the language of the Wurundjeri people have a name Marram (Kangaroo). The Wurundjeri are the custodians of the land where the GCA server is located, by the way. So in order to provide an accurate name for what I would call the Kangaroo we should have a listing for all first nations languages and the challenge that comes with accidental exclusion.

As someone who has been at the receiving end of a keyboard warrior for the use of inspired artworks in the GCA pathtags, I am very wary of trying to be all things to all people. The language of our website is English and for the time being, I will focus on English names for the things that we do.

However that does not mean that things cannot change over time and if the community has a great desire to make change, then change can be made.

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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: Aboriginal names

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 08 July 22 4:19 pm

I thought that might be a bit tricky. Thanks for considering it. I understand why it can't be done at this point.
:)

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