AustLit

BlackWords records details of published works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in language, bi-lingual texts, and translations of BlackWords texts into international languages.

As of 2019, recorded in AustLit there are:

- over 2500 works in an Indigenous language (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages

For example, episodes of Our Bedtime Stories in Arrernte, or films like Yulubidyi : Until the End (2018)

- nearly 300 Australian English works that have been translated into an Indigenous language

- 240 BlackWords texts that have been translated into an international language

For example: Kim Scott's Benang: From the Heart has been translated into French, Dutch and Chinese.

If you have a translation from your language group that you would like to share, please email it to us.

Readers are advised to explore resources available at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) website and the zoomable map of Indigenous Australia, developed as a part of the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. 

BlackWords aims to contribute to the ongoing process of reclaiming and maintaining Indigenous languages in Australia. 

The words and phrases displayed in the image are not necessarily exact or literal translations of 'BlackWords'. The words and phrases here attempt to encompass what BlackWords aims to do — explore, express and share the stories of our people, told in the past and in the present.

Thanks to those who have provided the following information for BlackWords.

This revolving gif presents words from a number of Australian languages. The translations are below:

Queensland

• Barrukka means 'talk' in Queensland from a non-specific geographical location

(source: Australian Aboriginal Words: Aboriginal-English; English-Aboriginal. Compiled by Rex Ingamells. Melbourne: Hallcraft, 1955.)

• Gi'yam means 'word' or 'language' in the Wakka language of South Eastern Queensland.

• Yãm'an means 'speaking' or 'telling' in the Kabi/Gubbi-Gubbi language of South Eastern Queensland.
• Ngau'rai means 'speak' in the Yugambeh/Yugumbir language of South Eastern Queensland.
• Yãr'i means 'speak' or 'say' in the Yugarabul/Yuggera/Jaggera language of South Eastern Queensland.

(Source: Vocabularies of Four Representative Tribes of South Eastern Queensland. Brisbane, Qld:

Royal Geographical Society of Australia, [195-].)

• Wayma, Gulgunma means 'talk' or 'speak' inYugumbir/Yugambeh dialect of the Bandjalang people of South Eastern Queensland/Northern NSW region.

  (Source: A Description of the Yugumbir Dialect of Bandjalang M.C. Cunningham. St. Lucia : University of Queensland Press, 1969.)

South Australia

• Mityi Utyu Wauda means 'BlackWords' in Adnyamathanha language of the Flinders Ranges region of South Australia.
• Tjukurpa Maru Tjuta means BlackWords in Pitjantjatjara language of the Central Desert region of South Australia.
• Wapar Maru Tjuta means BlackWords in Yankunytjatjara language of the Central Desert region of South Australia.

  (Source: Information courtesy of Guy Tunstill, Project Officer, Aboriginal Languages at the Department of Education and Children's Services.)

Tasmania

• Palawa kani means 'Aboriginal Talk' in Tasmanian Palawa language.

  (Source: Information courtesy of Greg Lehman, Aboriginal Education, Department of Education, Tasmania.)

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Western Australia

• Noongar-a-mai-waarngkiny means 'People talk, speaking' in the Nyungar language of South West Western Australia.

(Source: Humphries family, Kellerberrin, WA.)

• Marroo Yinnee means 'BlackWords' in the Nyungar language of South West Western Australia.

(Source: Josie Boyle, Morgans, WA.)