community & remembrance
term3
The Importance Of Country & Place
Aboriginal Language
language is extremely important to the Aboriginal peoples. Languages carry cultural knowledge, so the loss of a language means the loss of culture, of Aborginal people's connections to their ancestors.
"The important thing about language and what it means is that language contains the essence of our ancestors, every word comes from place and identifies people and 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
- Explain the importance of language to the Aboriginal people in your own words.
language is
place names
the Aboriginal name for shellharbour has been recorded as both yerrowah (meeting place), and wonwin, (place where there were big fish). The eurpoean name shellharbour refers to the large quanities of shells found in Aboriginal middens along the forshore in the early to mid 19th century for the production of lime these vast middens no longer remain.
Thelocal language group for the Illawarra
is also known as Tharawal, Muralag.