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emembered linguistic associations. Sommer (p7) notes that the term „Kunjen‟ found
commonly in the literature on languages in the area is often used at Kowanyama in a way
that incorporates the Oykangand, Olkol (Olgol in Sommer‟s spelling) and Kawarrangg
speaking peoples, with the Oykangand associated with Mitchell delta area inland of saltwater
incursion, the Olkol with the upstream areas of the Alice River, and the Kawarrangg with the
Mitchell River just below the Palmer River. This means that, depending on the context, it can
be appropriate to refer to both Olkol and Kunjen speaking peoples as associated with the
Oriners area, but the primary and more specific association is with the Olkol. Therefore this
term, and the contemporary terms „Oriners Mob‟ and „Forest People‟, will be used in the
subsequent sections of this report. Also noteworthy from Sommer‟s demarcation is the strong
association between language, identity and water. He writes of the historical Oykangand:
While the salt water tides reach into their country at the end of the dry season (October to
December), they are not exploiters of the marine environment, and maintain a proud
orientation to the og uland – the annual flooding of the Mitchell River which refreshed their
freshwater lagoons, refilled their creeks and spread out onto the plains, making the course
of the river a complex maze that is for a short time many kilometres wide.
(Sommer 2006: 7)
In a chapter about names and naming, Sommer notes that:
“The Oykangand as a community of speakers name themselves from the ecology of their
environment: „the people from the outside lagoons.‟ They will say „The floodwaters bin bring
us‟ in support of that orientation”
(Sommer 2006: 168)
In terms of names for individuals, he notes the relationship between the ancestral stories and
the wider environment, as well as kinship connections:
the practice is for the child to take a name from the character, behaviour or environmental
correlates of the principal figure of its father‟s story...Oykangand people take pains to
explain that these names relate to the story figure as a natural species and not as a human
ancestor. For example, RS‟s name [in erk ubundiy – „animal place dark-in‟] reflects the fact
that the emu is difficult to approach closely in hunting – its sense are so sharp that it is
usually seen only at a distance away from its darker habitations.
(Sommer 2006: 159)
He goes on to discuss the significance of conception-site names, which had more common
usage than the personal names described above, and were focused on critical sites in the
country belonging to the carrier‟s father. Sommer also describes how animal species were
named using either a name that made the sound the animal made, or described a key
physical or behavioural feature (Sommer 2006, 162-165). All of the above examples suggest
the importance of environmental observation, knowledge, and comparison.
However, Sommer qualifies his entire 2006 account by noting that much of it is based on
data obtained from older people now long deceased (he began collecting data in the 1960s).
Even at that time of data collection some 40 years before publication, a significant number of
the practices and customs were no longer active, including substantial elements of kinship
systems. The knowledge recorded from people contributing to this project cannot replicate
the level of detail made possible by Sommer‟s long-dead informants and by his considerable
linguistic skills.
1.5.3.4 Development aspirations - KALNRMO archives
KALNRMO archives yielded a range of unpublished documents and reports about Oriners
(Anonymous 1992; Anonymous 1995; KALNRMO 2001; Sinnamon and Meaney 2002;
Kowanyama Aboriginal Council 2003; Kowanyama Aboriginal Council 2003; Anonymous
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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