Dear all,

Chris Healey has forwarded his review of "Some Indigenous Names for
Australian Birds" published by Birds Australia as Report No. 20.
by John M. Peter, 2006. The review has been published in the current
issue of the Journal of Ethnobiology
(http://www.ethnobiology.org/journal/).

With the kind permission of Cissy Fowler, the Review Editor of the
Journal of Ethnobiology I reproduce Chris' review here:

Some Indigenous Names for Australian Birds. Birds Australia Report No. 20.
John M. Peter. 2006. Birds Australia, Hawthorn East. Pp. 92. AU$20.00.
ISBN
1329-7945.

Journal of Ethnobiology Vol 27 No 1, pp. 133-135.

Birds Australia is the premier ornithological organization in
Australia, dedicated to the scientific study of birds and their
conservation. This report is likely to attract the notice of
ethnobiologists, linguists, anthropologists and indigenous studies
specialists largely because of the promise of the title, and thus
warrants bringing to the attention of the readership of this journal.
Between 1990 and 2006 Birds Australia in association with Oxford
University Press (Melbourne) published the seven-volume Handbook of
Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds (HANZAB). The series
condenses the state of scientific knowledge of the birds of the HANZAB
region, presented in systematic (taxonomic) order, and has won wide
critical acclaim in ornithological circles.
Each volume (with the exception of volume 3, Snipe to Pigeons)
includes appendices listing indigenous (Australian Aboriginal and New
Zealand Maori) names for bird species, where known. The present report
conveniently brings together the HANZAB material on Australian
Aboriginal names with some minor emendations and, importantly,
supplies indigenous names for the species covered in volume 3, notably
the bio-culturally important Columbiformes (pigeons and doves).
The present report includes a brief six-page introduction with a very
basic overview of Aboriginal languages of Australia, the role of birds
in Aboriginal subsistence and culture, and the role played by
Aboriginal people in the development of scientific ornithology in
Australia. The bulk of the report is taken up by two sections: a
systematic list of Australian bird species, with `corresponding'
Aboriginal names; and a list of the regions from which Aboriginal
names were collected.
In the systematic list, Aboriginal names are arranged in alphabetical
order. A superscript number appended to each name refers to one or
more of the almost 50 regions listed. These are arranged by state,
subdivided into the numbered regions loosely identifying
bio-geographic areas, such as the southeast Gulf of Carpentaria and
Cape York Peninsula (Queensland), the Great Victoria Desert
(South Australia) and East Gippsland (Victoria). There are also
`unknown' or `unspecified' localities listed for several states. Under
each region is a list of from one to 15 references from which
Aboriginal names were derived. A bibliography of sources completes the
report.
Aboriginal names are drawn exclusively from published sources spanning
the period from the latter half of the 19th Century to 2004. Peter
notes that only a selection of Aboriginal bird names are included, but
fails to clarify the basis of selection. Many of the names chosen
reflect the inadequate Anglo-centric orthography of naive recorders,
some of questionable reliability. About two thirds of sources are from
the ornithological literature, perhaps reflecting Peter's background.
Most of the rest is from a limited range of publications in linguistics.
Although ethnobiology is an underdeveloped field in Australia, there
is a small but growing body of relevant literature, none of which is
cited.
There is an implicit assumption that the Aboriginal names are
equivalent to Linnaean named categories. While ethnobiologists are
wary of such assumptions, the non-specialist user of the report may
not be.
To my mind, the greatest problem with this report is that the
indigenous languages from which the listed names are drawn are not
identified. In some cases the relevant languages are identified in the
sources consulted, but in many cases they are not and the cultural
contexts of Aboriginal names remain obscure.
Anyone using this report with a view to identifying names for
particular species in particular Aboriginal languages will be sorely
frustrated. For example, there are 28 Aboriginal names listed for the
Magpie Goose of northern and northeastern Australia. Seven of these
names bear the superscript code number 44, which refers to Eastern
Arnhem Land, southwestern Gulf of Carpentaria and
Groote Eylandt. There are ten published sources listed for this region
(though several key linguistic and ethnographic sources are omitted).
Which of the several languages in this area are represented by the
seven names can only be discovered by examining all ten references. In
short, without access to the original sources in specialist libraries,
this report is of questionable usefulness.
Although Peter gives no indication of the purpose of compiling this
report, a compendium of this sort is potentially of value to varied
users—not least
ornithologists, ethnobiologists and indigenous Australians. The report
may be of interest to those seeking a glimpse of the variety of
Aboriginal names for birds.
Regrettably, the approach adopted falls well short of any practical
utility the report might serve as an entree into a fascinating area of
study. Hopefully, anyone else contemplating a similar exercise for
other parts of the world may avoid the same pitfalls.

Chris Healey
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University
Canberra
and
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia