Bidjigal Country
/ˈbɪdʒɪɡəl ˈkʌntri/noun
A geographical and cultural term referring to the traditional lands and living cultural inheritance of the Bidjigal people of the Sydney region, Australia.
Did you know?In Aboriginal Australian usage, “Country” is not merely territory: it can encompass ancestral beings, obligations, stories, law, waters, plants, animals, and continuing spiritual connection.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-colonial period
Bidjigal
Bidjigal
“The ethnonym used by the Bidjigal people; its internal etymology is not securely established in published linguistic sources.”
Late 18th–19th Century
English
Bidjigal
“A range of colonial spellings and transcriptions began recording the name of the people in the Sydney region.”
13th Century
Old French
contree
“A region or tract of land; the source of English country.”
Classical Latin
Latin
contra
“Opposite or facing against; the deeper source of the French form underlying country.”
14th Century
Middle English
contre
“A region, land, or territory, borrowed through Anglo-French and Old French.”
Modern English
English
country
“A geographic area or homeland; in Australian Indigenous contexts, often a culturally and spiritually significant ancestral place.”