A comparison of traditional Kaurna kinship patterns with those used in contemporary Nunga English

Abstract

The Kaurna people were the first South Australians to bear the brunt of the effects of colonisation. Even as early as 1850, the Kaurna language was said to be ‘extinct’, though it was probably still spoken as an everyday language up until the 1860s. Ivaritji, the so-called ‘last speaker’, died in 1929. Nonetheless, we still see enduring patterns of kinship categorisation and associated behaviours that clearly have their roots in Kaurna culture, or at least local Aboriginal cultures, persisting to the present day. This paper sets out to document those enduring patterns, as well as the re-introduction of kin terms and accompanying knowledge of Kaurna kinship associated with Kaurna language reclamation efforts. A great many Kaurna kinship terms were documented in the 1840s and a few in the early twentieth century, though many of these were under-defined and poorly described. Comparative linguistics has assisted in making sense of the historical record, though many uncertainties remain.