Lecture link: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2047566/events/1840804/videos/64883628
[Watched in the College of Law, Room G021, ANU, 6pm Wednesday, October 29th 2014]
In this lecture Ṉäkarrma teaches us about how Yolŋu people get their names (yäku)
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Ṉäkarrma:How do yolngu get their names? Where do they get it from? How many names can a yolŋu have? What is a Ḻikan name? Who can give names? Levels of power in names.
How do yolŋu get yäku, what names are given?
Today I'm going to talk about myself. The name of who I am, what those words mean... a few other things that yolŋu even young people need to learn about who they are ...
My names as I was growing up Mark ... a name I can't use at the moment with Y i n g a and Guyla. A name used in my bank account, my drivers license ... that was my everyday name as I grew up. Because my family member passed away and because of getting a few grey hairs and looking older ... I start to feel in myself a mature age .. an age that I start to take up responsibilites... and take up leadership and make decision for my clan ... for my family about rom mala ...
This profile now on computer on digital technology that tries to explain who I am ... I would rather stick within my own clan nation ... I don't want to talk about somebody else's history ... I'm quite safe talking about myself and my history ... I am a Dhuwa man and I talk about mainly about my surroundings ...
my name is now called Ṉäkarrma ... and down here is a name that people can use when they look up to me in a higher profile ... Mawunnhuwa ...
... I don't call myself because I wanted to call myself Guriniŋu Ḻäpurrwuŋu.
You can have more than two names but I'm not sure if my parents ... and my grandparents gave me any other names ... I'm sure they did but ... now they've passed away I'm not sure ... so these are the only two I'm stuck with at the moment.
Bulunu yäku the rain wanbana comes from Eastern Arnhemland and we sing about it ... at this time of the year ... and sometimes ... during the middle of the wet season those rains come and we sing about them ...
Every rain that comes from the eastern end is called the bulunu rain ... that's how this first name was given to me.
Next yäku, Ṉäkarrma is the ... morning star creator in my songs and dances that we sing about ... its an ancient story, its a story about the predecssor ... he gave us songs of the morning star ... at funeral dances we sing of the nakarmma .... and those names are given by the märi or our senior elders ... you try and stick within your own areas, your own boundaries where you can talk about and use the names with your own children and you don't cross over ...
I only have two yäku apart from Mark but you can have more than two yäku ... if you have a lot of family members they give you names after animals, birds ... clouds, star... if I'm a Dhuwa person it sticks with Dhuwa ...
Then I have a barpurru which is a clan or a tribe
Ḻikan also means an elbow but through this it means something different ... it means your surname if you like ... the deeper soul within you ... when the ancestral creators came through they give you your ḻikan ...
Students may be asking ... Why are men always the bosses or the leaders looking after ... sacred stories ... well that opens up another page which we can go on to ... maybe after Christmas ... its another story again.
... Through respect we use the ḻikan, we don't use the name ... through respect ... after someone has passed away.
Mala ... the group of clans that we belong to ... names given to us ... through naming of songs and ceremonies ... naming of the rain dance ...
The name ... explains itself
I belong to a Ḻiya-dhalinymirr Djambarrpuyŋu
Gapuw malthunawuy ḻikan ... is the palce of where you were first conceived ... for instance if ... one time my mother and father went to a waterhole and they caught a lot of fish at the river ... and it was unusual to catch an abundance of fish ... they couldn:t believe it was happening to them ... and when they went back someone dreamed that there was someone was walking up, a family member ... and not long after i was expected ...
Whereever it happens, you belong to that country ... I was concieved at a place called kanbikanbi
Liya-dhalinymirr or Liya-wolmamirr if you like ...
Its the time your mother feels your being expected and something ... unusual happens ... something strange happens in that area ... if you are a Dhuwa person then something of Dhuwa happens ... when my mother was pregnant they caught a lot of fish in this area ... it was very very unusual, so when they went back my mother was expecting me ... and that is called gapuw malthunawuy.
Because I was conceived around this area I am also called ...
When I spoke to you about the rrawiya djarraŋguykuy ... relating to ŋurula (seagull) and gamarrawa (estate) ...
You can have as many yäku as you like and its given mainly by your märi, your märi-pulu ... barpurru is where you belong to, no one gives you a name but you are automatically born into ... your parents don't have to make desicions
Barpurru mala and ḻikan you are born into ... but gapuw malthunawuy depends on where you are concieved ...
Ganbikanbi
ḻikan is more deeper ... when djankawa first came across ...Lecture series home