Koori

See also: koori and kööri

English

Alternative forms

• koori, Koorie, Goori, Goorie

Etymology

From Awabakal gurri; from the region of what is today Newcastle, adopted by indigenous people of other areas.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkʊri/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

Koori (plural Kooris or Koories)

1. (Australian Aboriginal, chiefly Victoria, New South Wales) An indigenous Australian. [from 19th c.]
   • 1996, Sarah Nuttall, Text, Theory, Space: Post-Colonial Representations and Identity‎^[1], page 175:

     C. S. of Stawell wrote to ‘point out some facts associated with Aboriginal myths of Dreamtime’. He denied a Koori presence (‘no Aboriginals ever entered the Grampians due to evil spirits’) and repeated a dominant pioneer folk myth that the rock-art was painted by ‘a French artist who had a great appreciation of Aboriginal art of central Australia’.

   • 1998, Untold Stories: Memories and Lives of Victorian Kooris, page xix:

     Stories from the Koori oral tradition show how differently the shared experience is perceived by indigenous and settler Australians.

   • 2009, Richard Everist, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula: The Spirit of Place‎^[2], page 15:

     Reliable population figures do not exist, but it [is] likely there were never large numbers: perhaps 18000 to 20000 Kooris across Victoria, perhaps 700 Wathaurong.

   • 2018, Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip, University of Queensland Press, published 2023, page 18:

     He was getting old fast, the way Goorie blokes did, especially in little shitbox joints like Durrongo.

Usage notes

Preferred by (some of) the people themselves over the terms aborigine and aboriginal, which are considered to be culturally loaded. Other terms are used in other regions.

Derived terms

• Koori grapevine

See also

• Murri (Queensland, New South Wales)

Anagrams

• iroko