COMMUNITY & REMEMBRANCE
TERM 3
ABORIGINAL LANGUAGE
Language is extremely important to the aboriginal peoples.Languages carry cultural knowledge, so the loss of a language means a loss of a culture, of Aboriginal peoples connections to their ancestors.
The important thing about language and what it means is that language contains the essence of ancestors,every word comes from place and identifies people to the links to the land, country, the dreaming: they are all inherent in language, therefore it means the people, the land, everything 'Yolngu Elder Laurie Baymarrwangga.
Te local language group for the illawarra is 'THARAWHAL'.
- Explain the inportance of language to the Aboriginal people in your own words.
Language is important to the Aboriginal people because they could be taken away to another place and be forceed to speak a whole new language.
PLACE NAMES
The Aboriginal name for Shellharbour has been recorded as both Yerrowah (meeting place), and Wonwin , (place where there were big fish). The European name Shellharbour refers to the large quantities of shells found in Aboriginal middens along the foreshore in the early to mid 19th century.Due to the mining of shells in the mid 19th century for the producton of lime these vast middens no longer remain.