A language expert has criticised the Queensland government’s use of the Indigenous word “wongari” to refer to dingo.
On Aug. 10, the Queensland government published a media release where its Parks and Wildlife Service would be investigating an incident on K'gari (formally known as Fraser Island) where two collared “wongari” (dingoes) approached a group of adults before biting a woman on the thigh.
“A member of the group threw a stick at the wongari and scared them off,” the statement said.
“The wongari went down Eli Creek and around 11:50am, approached a woman from behind. When the woman turned around and saw the wongari, she fell and was bitten on the thigh.”
Kel Richards, the author of nine books about words and languages and founder of OzWords, a website about Australian language, said the use of such terms would confuse people.
“The point of language, you and I know, is to communicate,” he told Sydney’s radio 2GB. “And in Australia, we don’t speak Dharug or any other local indigenous language, we speak English.”
He added that the languages are diverse even within the Indigenous community, and many Indigenous words that came into the English language were from the Sydney area.
Mr. Richards noted that about 75 percent of place names in Australia (three million out of four million) are in Indigenous languages already.
“So we’ve already using lots and lots of Indigenous words showing lots of respect to the local Indigenous people by naming the places as they told us.”
Fraser Island Renamed K'gari
The latest name change comes after the Queensland government decided to also switch the name of the world’s largest sand island Fraser Island, off the southern-east coast of Queensland.
The change to K'gari comes after a long campaign by Indigenous groups, who argued the name Fraser was a “disrespect” to their people.
Amid the formal name change, more than 19 hectares of land was also transferred to the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Butchulla people of the island.
K’gari, which is pronounced as “gurrie,” means “paradise” in the native tongue of the local Butchulla people. It originates from an Aboriginal Dreamtime story about a goddess named K’gari who was sent from the sky to help make the land and the seas.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government would continue to recognise Indigenous language by adopting more dual-naming conventions to align with its goals of truth-telling and reconciliation.
“While steps like this can’t change the wrongs of the past, it goes a long way to building a future where all Queenslanders value, trust, and respect each other,” she said.
“This always was and always will be Butchulla Country.”
However, some have described the move as “virtue signalling” and that the name change was undemocratic as the government mainly consulted with Aboriginal activists and not other locals.
