{"id":8460,"date":"2015-08-16T12:14:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T02:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/?p=8460"},"modified":"2015-08-19T18:09:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T08:09:09","slug":"orana-how-did-naming-books-welcome-a-polynesian-word-as-australian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/2015\/08\/orana-how-did-naming-books-welcome-a-polynesian-word-as-australian\/","title":{"rendered":"Orana<\/i> : how did naming books welcome a Polynesian word as Australian?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LP<\/a>
http:\/\/www.musicstack.com\/item\/74418194<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of us who remember the 1960s in Australia know the chorus<\/a> \u2018Orana! Orana! Orana to Christmas Day\u2019 (listen via iTunes<\/a>, track 13<\/a>) in one of the popular Australianised seasonal songs of the period. The lyricist, ABC staff writer John Wheeler (fl. 1940\u201370, with composer William Garnet \u2018Billy\u2019 James<\/a> 1892\u20131977), likely found the word Orana<\/em> in one of the notorious naming booklets: Orana<\/em> \u2018welcome\u2019 has been listed in many of them as an Aboriginal word of NSW, beginning with Thorpe <\/span>(1921<\/span>:5<\/span>) (and see table below). Update<\/strong>: \u2018Carol of the birds\u2019 was in the first set of Five Australian Christmas carols<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> released for Christmas 1948 (Catholic Weekly <\/i>23 Dec 1948, page 2, Magazine Section<\/a>), which implies Wheeler’s source was one of the Thorpe or Tyrrell booklets published before WWII.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s Orana<\/em> got another boost in New South Wales, from official naming:<\/p>\n

ORANA, an Aboriginal word meaning \u201cwelcome\u201d and, since 1972, the name of a region in New South Wales. The Orana Region (formerly North\u2013Western Region) covers roughly the central third of the State’s northern half. (Anonymous<\/span> 1988<\/span>:2169<\/span>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thereupon a number of business names in the region incorporated Orana<\/em> (as witness these Yellow Pages listings<\/a>), and its \u2018capital\u2019, Dubbo, has the Orana Mall: \u2018the premier shopping centre in the Central West \u2026 servicing the Region since 1979\u2019 (from the Mall’s website<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The next development was that Wiradjuri, the language of the country around Dubbo, was somehow taken to be the source of the word:<\/p>\n

The Orana, meaning \u2018Welcome\u2019 in Wiradjuri, is the largest and most diverse region in the State, http:\/\/www.rdaorana.org.au\/Orana.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, I have not been able to find any Australian record of Orana<\/b> other than in those 1920s booklets. Furthermore, salutations are not usual in Australian languages (that is, the languages usually don’t have a word that is primarily a salutation); in particular and the 19th century Wiradjuri wordlists don’t have a match for Orana<\/em>, and Wiradjuri words typically don’t begin with a vowel. These days Wiradjuri people use gawaymbanha <\/strong>\u2018welcome, tell to come\u2019, as listed in the Wiradjuri Dictionary app<\/a> released in June.<\/p>\n

Also during the 20th century Orana<\/em> has been applied to name dozens of homesteads and other features of the built environment, as shown here: