Binghi

English

Etymology

From a word meaning "elder brother" in the Ngamba, Birbai and Wanarua languages once spoken between Kempsey and Newcastle, NSW.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪŋaɪ/

Noun

Binghi (plural Binghis)

1. (Australia, derogatory, ethnic slur) An Aboriginal person.
   • 1923, D.H. Lawrence, chapter XIV, in Kangaroo, London: Martin Secker, page 303:

     "Ned Kelly: Hearing the deuce of a racket in the abo (aborigines) camp near our place, we strolled over to see what was wrong, and saw a young Binghi giving his gin a father of a hiding for making eyes at another buck. Every respectable Binghi has the right to wallop his missis, but this one laid it on so much that he knocked her senseless. […] "

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia‎^[1], page 104:

     Differ smiled again, and after a while said smoothly, "You look on Binghis as animals. They're not really. They've got a different code from ours, that's all—but one no more different in its way than a Chinaman's. As a matter of fact, their code of simple brotherhood is the true Christian one. […] "

   • 1946 Jim Borella Swan, Blue Star All Australian Comics, The K.G. Murray Publishing Co. [2]

     The Adventures of Billy Binghi (title of a comic feature)

   • 1948 S.E. Pearson, In the Kalkadoon Country: The Habitat and Habits of a Queensland Aboriginal Tribe, written for The Historical Society of Queensland, [3]

     Wood-Jones believed that these early migrants got here by sea, in canoes, and that each one brought with him his missus and the kids. Wood-Jones also held to the opinion that Binghi brought with him the dingo—a domesticated Asiatic wolf—together with the dingo's missus. Botanists also lean to the belief that Binghi brought with him (for food purposes) the seeds of certain plants which are not considered to be indigenes of this country; a notable instance being Prickly Acacia (A. Farnesiana), bunkaman, of the blackfellows.

   • 1962 Manning Clark, Manning Clark's History of Australia, Abridged by Michael Cathcart, Melbourne University Press, 1993, Chapter 7, p. 438, [4]

     In November 1909 the Bulletin ridiculed the Australian Church Congress for uttering lamentations about the obvious passing away of "our black brother Binghi". What maddened the Bulletin was the tears from the advocates of the universal embrace. The bishops, the clergy, and all the other creeps had never been brave enough to say they wanted more Binghis in the world. To be born Binghi meant being black and often naked, to be a person who had an incurable tendency to lead a squalid life in a gunyah. Binghis, said the Bulletin, added nothing to the world's stock of knowledge.