The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia

by Hercus, Luise, Hodges, Flavia & Simpson, Jane (2002), xxiv+304pp.,, ISBN 1 74076 020 4.
AUD$35.00 (Including GST: AUD$38.5) (softcover)

The entire Australian continent was once covered with networks of Indigenous placenames. These names often evoke important information about an environmental feature and its place in Indigenous systems of knowledge. This book promises to become the standard reference work on Indigenous placenames of Australia, and considers a variety of aspects of Indigenous placenaming. An overview is given in the introduction, while two general papers discuss the relative linguistic transparency of the placenames of different Indigenous groups, and the difficulty of distinguishing between names and descriptive expressions. Other papers include analyses of placenames used by contemporary Indigenous groups, investigations into the origins of placenames of Indigenous origin which are embedded within the system of official placenames, and descriptions of conflict and accommodation between the two systems, and case studies of recent initiatives to establish Indigenous placenames as official placenames.