Here is an example from 1998.

This was in the Times in Victor Harbour SA

“TREE ATTACK OUTRAGE
CURRENCY CREEK — The
Aboriginal heritage registered
Canoe Tree near Currency
Creek, has only a slim chance of
survival after it was ringbarked
at the weekend.
A section of bark and soft wood
encircling the river red gum was
cut away with what is believed
to have been an axe on Saturday
night or early Sunday.
The words: "Coons did this"
were marked on the tree, located
east of the Strathalbyn - Goolwa
Road near the intersection
with Winery Road.
Victor Harbor CIB is investi-
gating the incident.
Alexandrina Council's parks
and gardens supervisor Kallan
Dennis reported the damage to
local police on Sunday morning.
"The future viability of the
tree is fairly minimal," Mr
Dennis said.”

So my sufferer of selective amnesia the word has been in usage and still is in Australia. The fact that you and Mr Aitken are so quick to say it isn't speaks volumes.

Thank u Joe 2

That was one of your better ones :-)
Got a smile for a change.

Dan

SRx,

The Bulletin was well-known as originally a racist rag, with its slogan 'For the White Man' or some such. In 1972, it's interesting that by then, it was putting racist words in quotation marks - and in this case, not referring to people in Australia at all but to those in PNG.

By the way, I've certainly heard the term 'rock apes' used by Aboriginal people - in SA, to mean those from the Flinders, just as other Aboriginal people use terms like 'mud monkeys' for coastal people. And I suspect that the first term may also be used currently by Aboriginal people to refer to Africans.

I recall an appalling woman working her way through an entire chicken and brushing her young son away with "F... off you black ape." No, nobody else liked her either, she was from further down the Murray, but her husband had many relations on the 'mission' so she had to be tolerated, at least until they left. I recall her also knocking the daylights out of another of her kids after he had eaten her Easter egg - we heard about that f....ing Easter egg for hours, from one end of the village to the other.

Hey, that's life :)

Joe

I have heard the word coon some years back but it seems to have lost currency.
That happens to words and then another word is adopted or invented to
take its place. It goes on all the time, so what do you think will be
substituted for coon ?
Boong of course is already in use, abo I understand is not acceptable
even though its origin seems obvious and even sensible.
So for my money, "abo" is the obvious choice.
Perhaps they could rename the cheese "ABO" !

Why don't carpenters object to "chippy" or electricians to "sparky" ?

Bazz,

In the Indonesian language, the word "bung" means brother, or respected, loved, brother or uncle. The late President Sukarno was affectionately known as "Bung Karno".

In different parts of Australia, Indigenous people usually have common words for themselves, so of course we should run with that. In WA, at least in the South, they use the term "Nyoongah" or "Noongah". In much of NSW and Victoria, the term "Koori" is used. In Queensland, "Murri"; and down here in SA, "Nunga" or more localised names. And of course, everybody has words for 'Whitefella', usually merely descriptive, not all that pejorative.

My favourite for a whitefella is "Krinkari", always used by my wife and Ngarrindjeri people, still. Traditionally, when a body was dried on a platform, the skin would eventually break apart and reveal a whiter skin underneath, known as "krinkari".

I suppose we can take offence whenever we want to, even over somebody saying nothing or even looking at someone. Perhaps offence is in the mind of the beholder.

Joe

Many of these words weren't meant as insults to start off with. Academics & indoctrinated do-gooders made them insulting !
To further their own agenda, nothing else !