[RNLD] Karama

John Mansfield jbmansfield at gmail.com
Tue Nov 20 22:40:22 UTC 2018


One reason to prefer the Karama = Murrinhpatha interpretation is that all
the other Darwin suburbs seem to be named after NT groups.

I'm not sure who chose these names and when, but the name "Garama" seems to
have had quite some currency among outsiders referring to the Murrinhpatha
in the mid-20th century - e.g. it is used by both Capell and Hale in their
fieldnotes.

On the other hand, we might then have expected the suburb to be spelt with
a G-, rather than a K-...

On Wed, 21 Nov 2018 at 09:23, David Osgarby <david.osgarby at uqconnect.edu.au>
wrote:

> Hi Margaret,
>
> Here's a possible lead on "Karama". Brown (1912, 144) records "Karama"
> as a western group of the Yindjibarndi people: "The more easterly part
> of the Injibandi tribe call themselves Kârama or Korama and are so
> spoken of by the Binigura who adjoin them." Tindale (1940, 204) later
> references Brown on this: "Loc.: Valley of Fortescue River east of
> Millstream. This is also regarded as a westerly (not easterly)
> subtribe of the Indjibandi."
>
> Brown, A. R. 1912. ‘The Distribution of Native Tribes in Part of
> Western Australia’. Man 12: 143–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/2788273.
> Tindale, Norman B. 1940. ‘Results of the Harvard-Adelaide Universities
> Anthropological Expedition, 1938-1939: Distribution of Australian
> Aboriginal Tribes: A Field Survey’. Transactions of the Royal Society
> of South Australia 64 (1): 231.
> https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/129844#page/235/mode/1up.
>
> David
> On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 2:26 PM Margaret Carew
> <margaret.carew at batchelor.edu.au> wrote:
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > Karama is a suburb of Darwin. This is one of a number of suburbs named
> after Indigenous languages and clan groups.
> >
> > When I consult the NT Placenames register it says this:
> >
> > Karama is a Aboriginal tribal name, one of a number that Douglas
> Lockwood suggested might be used in 1964.
> >
> > Does anyone have any more information about the provenance of this name?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > ———————————————
> >
> > Dr Margaret Carew
> >
> > Linguist, CALL
> > Division of Higher Education and Research
> >
> > Batchelor Institute – Desert People’s Centre campus
> >
> > tel: 08 8951 8344
> > email: margaret.carew at batchelor.edu.au | www.batchelor.edu.au
> >
> > Both-Ways Tertiary Education and Research
>
>
>
> --
> David Osgarby [ˈɔskəˌbiː]
> Research Associate, School of Languages and Cultures
> The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072
> ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL)
> m: +61 432 962 476
>
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