The Naming with Janggaburru

For the 2019 edition of the Tablelands Folk festival, Memetica collaborated with local Dulgubarra Yidinji Elders Uncle Laurie Padmore and Aunty Syb Breslyn to create a performance aimed at increasing acknowledgment and awareness of local First Nations culture in the town of Yungaburra and in the region.

Honoring the International Year of Indigenous Language The Naming project aimed at presenting the Dulgubarra Ydinji’s language to the wider community. The art intervention was implemented by adding street signage in Indigenous language to the existing ones in English.
Rather than merely translating existing English signage, The Naming introduced new markers that actively deconstructed topological, historical, and imposed colonial narratives, reaffirming the traditional and ongoing cultural, geographical, and historical identity of the landscape.

For the duration of the Festival, giant Janggaburru and his team of friends have been busy installing Indigenous language street signage thus bringing to actualization The Naming project.

Here below you can find the list of all the new signs installed by Janggaburru. Click the audio to hear the pronunciation as recorded by Dulguburra Ydinji Elder Uncle Laurie Padmore.

When applicable, the English literal translations of Ydinji words are displayed between round brackets. The English words between square brackets refer to the same objects or locations although the matching meaning is not always literal.