garadyi wirawi

If a university wished to set up a medical unit specifically for Sydney Aboriginal women, what might an appropriate name for it be? This is what Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) was asked for a few days ago.

Needless to say there is no word in the records for such a facility.

In looking for a fitting word, one might seek inspiration from concepts such as:

So let us see what emerges from the Bayala Databases for Sydney, and for Coastal and Inland NSW.

WELLNESS

There are no Sydney language records for wellness although several Coastal and Inland languages cover this concept, as in Table 1.

Table 1 healthy / well / better / recover / convalescent

PAIN / HURT / UNWELLNESS

There are Sydney records for being unwell, with a few representative examples given in Table 2

TABLE 2 ill

‘DOCTOR’ / ‘NURSE’

There are numerous examples for ‘doctor’ in the Sydney language records though none for ‘nurse’. Some for this latter concept occur in inland languages.

TABLE 3 nurse

TABLE 4 doctor

FEMALE / WOMAN / GIRL

There is no shortage of examples for ‘woman’, ‘girl’ and women belonging to a clan group in the Sydney records, examples being given in Table 5.

TABLE 5 female

GROUP

In the Sydney Language, the indicator of a clan group is -gal, as shown in Table 6.

The indicator of someone who does something (e.g. as a baker bakes, or as a governor governs) is -gan.

TABLE 6 group indicator

SUGGESTION FOR A SYDNEY LANGUAGE NAME FOR A MEDICAL FACILITY FOR WOMEN

The following names are proposed.

garadyi wirawi

garadyi-galyan

The choice comes down to the ‘doctor’ concept. The medical facility is about recovery, not about pain, and there are no Sydney words in the records for wellness.

It is acknowledged that a ‘doctor’ in the Sydney language if 1790 and thereabouts would have been a male. However, even that society not renowned for equal opportunity might have moved with the times by now, so allowing the suggestion of garadyi-galyan, or woman doctor(s).

The other suggestion, and perhaps preferred, is garadyi wirawi (more euphonic than garadyi dyin), because it conveys the idea of doctoring by or for women and or girls.

JEREMY STEELE

Friday 4 March 2016

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For Bayala Databases, see 

bayaladatabases.blogspot.com