Ditton, Pam --- "Letter to the Editor: What's in a Name?" [1982] AboriginalLawB 66; (1982) 1(6) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 9

• Letter To The Editor What’s In A Name?

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Letter to the Editor

What’s in a Name?

by Pam Ditton

Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service

Working for the Aboriginal Legal Service in Alice Springs I am continually struggling to match my clients with my files napes are the problem. To take an example, a woman may on different days refer to herself as `Mary Brown', `Napaljarri', `Mary Napaljarri' or even `Mary Brown Napaljarri'. If I write to a firm of solicitors about my client `Mary Brown Napaljarri', they frequently refer to her in their reply as 'M.B. Napaljarri'. Thus, leaving out further variants which frequently arise, there are at least five commonly used versions of my client's name.

`Napaljarri' is NOT a surname in the European sense but a skin name. Almost all Central Australian Aboriginals " belong to one of a total of eight different skin groups. In some languages the male and female skin groups use the same word, in other languages the male groups start with the letter `J' and the female with the letter `N'. Thus one eighth of all my female clients' are likely to be called `Napaljarri' and none of them ever refer to themselves as Mrs/ Miss/ Ms Napaljarri. Mary is correctly addressed either as 'Mrs/Miss/Ms Brown' or . as just `Napaljarri'. Consequently it is not very useful to cite a case as R v Napaljarri or as Jungarai v The Queen (see [1982] AboriginalLB 50; 1(5)pg10 ).

The practice commonly adopted in the N.T. recently has been to use the full name in case citations, e.g. R v Mary Brown Napaljarri. I suggest that this is adopted as standard practice unless the client gives instructions to the contrary, e.g. a few communities place the skin name before the surname, thus, Mary Napaljarri Brown. Some Aboriginals do not use a skin name or alternatively, no surname; either `Mary Brown' or `Mary Napaljarri' then becomes the full name. The only possible abbreviation is R v Brown, but for the reasons explained above and because of the very limited range of surnames in many Aboriginal communities (it, is a bit like asking for 'Jones' in a Welsh village) I strongly urge that the full name becomes the accepted citation in cases where a skin name is involved.

I suspect that where cases have been cited differently in official Law Reports, the reporter has been unfamiliar with the system of Aboriginal skin names. In these cases I request the AboriginalLB to adopt the practice of citing the full names (where known) in brackets after the formal citation.

If anyone rings me up to discuss one of my cases and can only give me the skin name I will never be able to find the file - but' with a little bit of luck Mary Brown Napaljarri's file will be located instantly!