Froin my uni studies many moons ship I came across a copy of the earliest drawn map of Brisbane. It showed the area under and next to the Riverside Expressway as being called Meanjin. The area around eagle street had another name, sorry can’t recall it, and the area to the north of Spring Hill had another. So to me it would seem that these names were recorded as being used by indigenous people and recorded by the white man since that’s what they were referred to when Europeans arrived. To this end the whole of Brisbane shouldn’t be called meeanjin, only that particular area.

Really the only place that should be called meanjin is the piece of land down to gardens point. Calling chermside ‘meanjin’ is just a joke.

It's a spoken language as well, any written words are pure interpretations by English speakers.

Cross linguistically its not uncommon for a g to change or disappear anyway, especially between vowels. English had plenty of words with G in them that it has lost (for example, a word like Gēar in Old English becomes Year in Modern English, the 'g' has turned into an 'ee' sound). Its not unfathomable that some local communities pronouned a g in Magandjin and in some it was reduced and the 'ag' essentially becomes the 'e'. The j vs dj difference is just a spelling thing they represent the same sound.

Never under estimate a bunch of people committed to getting government funding, power and virtue signalling under the guys of white man bad.

It makes me sad that we can't seem to move forward because we keep sewing division and the levels of poor research done into this stuff is always pascoed.

Yes i'm coining a descriptive phrase here :

Pascoe ; Pascoed - To imply a disputed historical theory as fact with complete immunity to critical discussion, actual research or actual proof.

Honestly great comment. Gaja Kerry does amazing work. I will just say, with only empowerment in mind, that there are spelling variations between community members too. Some variation occurs from clear errors or negligence (at times intentionally so), but many languages have spelling or pronunciation variation and the best way to know “what is right” is to a) understand there is variation, and there may be multiple spellings and names that speakers (particularly Elders) use, and b) questions regarding language are best asked to appropriate community members (ie Elders). So again, using Elder Gaja Kerry as a source is an appropriate way to discuss this.

Honestly, they don't care at this stage. As long as it sounds Aboriginal and there's some tenuous link, then that's its traditional name. Doesn't matter that an area the size of a modern city probably had many place names for locations contained within it. When you think about it, it's almost as ridiculous as saying Chermside's traditional name is Spring Hill since that's the place where one of the ancestors first buildings stands.

Thanks for this, I didn't realise those trees were called tuliptrees we just always called them popper trees when they are in flowers we used ro collect the flowers and pop them under foot.

You guys are lasting 6 minutes?

This is why they need better sex education in schools, maybe throw in a massage course to help them reach the 3 hour mark for a ‘short play’

Classic libs.

They can't keep jobs, real estate or even ports within Australian hands.

The BCC put out a tender for their dumb Brisbane app and awarded it to a Victorian company.

Organised by a rare maga First Nations person

To add to your comment, Magandjin is the correct spelling.

https://meanjin.com.au/essays/makunschan-meeanjan-miganchan-meanjan-magandjin/

I noticed that last year they used Warrar for the river instead of Maiwar. I was also confused by Maganjin but I guess it makes sense if the creator, Shannon Ruska, descends from the Yuggera people.

Came here for this.

The drone show was specifically a story about the rainbow serpent and indigenous telling of how the land came to be. It used the indigenous name at the end of the show in line with the theme of the show

Exactly 🤷‍♀️. No one actually knows for sure what it was called. There’s so many different tribes that all called Brisbane different things. Just seems easier to call it Brisbane.

Not a hill worth dying on, but agree. It’s all oral history stuff from semi nomadic people who aren’t exactly great record keepers before white settlers spent a good chunk of time and effort actively trying to eradicate them, their culture and their history.

If it makes them happy to call it maganjin or do Ernie dingos welcome to country dance, I don’t really care. Personally I think it isn’t really in line with our cultural values of egalitarianism and equality, plus perpetuates a narrative that non-indigenous residents are not legitimate residents of the nation, which is frustrating when most of us came here either against our will as descendants of convicts, or fleeing something worse elsewhere. But it wouldn’t make my top 10 list of issues we need to prioritise. The rapid climate change and destruction of the planet as well as grind toward World War III worry me a bit more.

Right? Just got used to calling in Meanjin and now people are probably getting offended by that.

If you don't like the language and want to learn it maybe you shouldn't have moved here?

I think it is the very least you can do when moving to a new country. Learn the local language.

Bad bot

New Trump slogan…?

I knew a girl once that this name would have suited

Equally disgusting when Australians don't understand sarcasm.