Its unique song is reflected in its Noongar name: "Coolbardie". The mining town of Coolgardie means "magpie" in the Goldfields Aboriginal dialect. There are two subspecies of Australian magpie in WA – each identifiable by its markings.
Booroogong and garoogong were Wiradjuri words and Victorian terms included carrak (Jardwadjali), kuruk (Western Victorian languages), kiri (Dhauwurd Wurrung language) and kurikari (Wuluwurrung). Among the Kamilaroi, it is burrugaabu, galalu, or guluu.
Noongar people have a deep respect for Djirda (birds) and the role they play within their spirit and physical world and environment.
Adopted into the local English language are also many Noongar plant and animal names: Marri, Karri, Jarrah, Quenda (Bandicoot), Quokka and Jilgie. Early explorers had no English names for many of the species that occur in the south-west of WA.
BIRD in general: debe, Aranda (T. Strehlow), "all birds that fly." deba-deba (Chewings) .
Barrawarn is the Wurundjeri word for Magpie, and the Barrawarn Program is the heart of the Collingwood Football Club's Indigenous partnerships, programs, activities and events.
Waang the Trickster
Waang the Crow is a trickster, culture hero and ancestral being. In the Kulin nation in central Victoria he was known as Waa (also Wahn or Waang). Legends relating to Waang have been observed in various Aboriginal language groups and cultures across Australia.
They include bunji, "a mate, a close friend a kinsman" (from Warlpiri and other languages of the Northern Territory and northern Queensland), boorie, "a boy, a child" (from Wiradjuri), jarjum, "a child" (from Bundjalung), kumanjayi, "a substitute name for a dead person" (from Western Desert language), pukamani "a ...
The Noongar name for the black swan is Maali, and its colour also features in one of their Dreaming stories.
Some examples of Noongar totems are jirda, birds, kwooyar – frogs, gooljak, kooljark, koolyak – swans, yoorn/yoondarn – goannas and karda/caarda- lizards. Every individual has a spirit totem or an animal which we have a responsibility for and must treat with respect.
"Bindi Bindi means Butterfly in the local Noongar language."
Bunjil, also spelt Bundjil, is a creator deity, culture hero and ancestral being, often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle in Australian Aboriginal mythology of some of the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria.
Wardong, or crows, are of immense spiritual significance in Noongar culture. A totem for many families, they are protected by those who have spiritual kinship with the bird.
Originally, magpies were known only as pies in English—the earliest record we have of them comes from an Anglo-Saxon document that lists pyge as the Old English translation of pica, the Latin name for the magpie.
The scientific name of a Black-billed magpie is Pica hudsonia. The word Pica is medieval Latin. It was given to a magpie because the bird has a reputation for eating almost anything. Some other common names for this bird include the American magpie, Maggie, and Flute-bird.
This has led to another meaning of magpie, "someone who talks obnoxiously." You might describe your chatterbox neighbor as a magpie — and the word itself comes from the nickname Mag, short for Margaret and commonly used in slang English to mean "idle chattering."
Mia mia. Shelter made from natural bush; sticks and branches.
Kaka or Kaa-kaa is the Noongar name for a Laughing Kookaburra.
Meeka, Mika or Miyak (Balardong Noongar) known in English as the Moon, is the only large natural satellite of the Earth.
Some of the most well known Aboriginal words for hello are: Kaya, which means hello in the Noongar language. Palya is a Pintupi language word used as a greeting much in the same way that two friends would say hello in English while Yaama is a Gamilaraay language word for hello used in Northern NSW.
Dembart – Grandmother
Maam bart/maaman/naan – Father.
Contributor's comments: Aboriginal word for mate, usually used when addressing a friend. Sometimes shortened to Bunj: "Hey Bunji" or "G'day Bunj."
Often heard at night, the bird's distinctive call has been described as akin to the call of a screaming woman or baby. In many Australian Aboriginal cultures Bush Stone-curlews have close associations with death and features in many Aboriginal stories across Australia.
Waa is the Wurundjeri wilan moiety totem. It is the crow, also called the raven. '“Caw” says the crow as she flies over head, It's time little people were going to bed”!
As one Elder commented: 'We say that the bird calls its own name'. The name “gogo” (and its various renditions) is remarkably similar to the names recorded in other parts of Aboriginal Australia for the boobook (or mopoke).