Our word of the week is Boondi.

According to the survey forms and correspondence received by the Royal Anthropological Society of Australasia regarding Aboriginal place names, 1899-1903, 1921-1926, Boondi, now called Bondi means ‘the noise made by sea waves’. According to the David R Horton map, Boondi most likely originated from the Dharug Language group. 

In the lead up to NAIDOC Week 2015, the Indigenous Services team of the State Library of NSW will be posting an Indigenous ‘word of the week’ from collection material available on the Rediscovering Indigenous Languages Website. This year the NAIDOC Week theme is ‘We all Stand on Sacred Ground: Learn, Respect and Celebrate’. It encourages people to find out more about their local community and the traditional names for places, rivers and mountains in their area. The State Library’s collections hold significant historical materials that record Aboriginal place names and meanings across Australia.

The baths at Bondi - Bondi, NSW

Join us in commenting other Indigenous facts or history relating to Bondi!

It is important to note that these records were written in most cases about Aboriginal languages by non - Aboriginal people. For this reason, the written words may not accurately reflect the ways in which an oral language was spoken and transmitted.