What should go in the LNAB for a single-name Aboriginal woman?

Question

I'm adding parents for a distant relative, and her mother was Kyanga, a young Australian Aboriginal woman who died around 1849. Her people are unknown, as are her parents, and she did not formally marry her convict partner.

What should go into the LNAB in this situation? I read a suggestion that the father's personal name could be used for some cultures who do not have family names but that's unlikely to ever be discovered. I'm hoping for a format that is least likely to cause offense to living relatives.

Comments

This will just confuse you further:

https://aiatsis.gov.au/research/finding-your-family/before-you-start/indigenous-names

There are some very good ideas on that site for researching.

And you may have to have the usual disclaimer about the dead on her profile.

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Thanks, I'm mostly concerned with the formatting at the moment though. 'Unknown' seems odd. She was only 13 or 14 when she died, probably in childbirth, so there isn't going to be a lot of names in her paper trail.

Disclaimer-wise - I was also going to put the aboriginal flag as her profile pic so it's an additional warning.

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That's a very good idea. It will make it obvious to everyone who may have problems with a discussion of the dead.

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The Indigenous Australian's group is currently developing guidelines on this. I am not sure which leader advised A.T but in any case the knowledge of this is evolving.

Some brief points

* Yes the content warning is a great idea of profiles like this

* The assumption that First Nations people she only had one name is not true. Please refer to kinship modules at the bottom of this draft at the bottom of the page from the University of Sydney. "No Last Name" does not apply.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Indigenous_Australians_Background_to_Naming 

Answer 1

I used "No last name" yesterday and promptly got a message from a Leader asking me to change it to Unknown. I then changed her surname to that of her common law husband ( a British man) so that at least she might be recognised by someone if they know of her. I don't want her to show up in lists as "Unknown Unknown" as that seems really disrespectful, especially when we're trying to make these women visible in history. Anyway, the Leader said what I did was fine.  See Unknown-380249 to see what I did. I still feel the system is not adequate for this and we need some protocols for entering information about indigenous people.

Answer 2

Hi Kathleen

See Special Rules for required fields

I would say that No Last Name applies here

Comments

This is only supposed to be used for the Current Last Name, not the Last Name At Birth.

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Hi Chris,

So what would your solution be if it only applies to current last name

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If she never married, then her last name at birth is her current last name, in this case No Last Name?

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Yes, I would do it like that since she had only one name all her life.