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I don't mean this question insensitively, but what's the deal with the warning? Never seen anything like that before. Is it motivated by some sort of indigenous

I don't mean this question insensitively, but what's the deal with the warning? Never seen anything like that before. Is it motivated by some sort of indigenous Australian religious or cultural belief relating to photography and death?

jaydeegee 2y ago
Yes it is a cultural practice in many indigenous aussie communities. https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-protocols-what-the-media-needs-to-do-when-depicting-deceased-persons/97xq2otnt https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-prot...
defrost 2y ago
The relatively unusual part is a post colonial government paying heed to indigenous beliefs via official channels ( ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ). Taboos around naming or visualising the recently deceased are more common than many westerners might think A taboo against naming the dead is a kind of word taboo whereby the name of a recently deceased person, and any other words similar to it in sound, may not be uttered. It is observed by peoples in many parts of the world, including the indigenous peoples of northern Australia, Siberia, Southern India, the Sahara, Subsaharan Africa, and the Americas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_on_the_dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_on_the_dead https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/mourning-an-aboriginal-death https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/mo... It's certainly no weirder than pretending to eat bits of a god's son. Addendum: For those interested, a language group map of Australia: https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_highres.jpg https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_high...
- kaon_ 2y ago
  Super-interesting side-tangent: There is a theory that the clicking sounds present in many African languages originate from taboos like these. Basically they would use a click as "you-know-who". Source: I heard it on TheGreatCourses at some point.
  - defrost 2y ago
    That doesn't exactly mesh with the way that !Xhosa speakers talk about their language, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baEiWB2aM9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baEiWB2aM9Y https://youtu.be/KZlp-croVYw?t=16 https://youtu.be/KZlp-croVYw?t=16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language
  - bradrn 2y ago
    It’s more complicated than that. The taboo in this case is hlonipha [0] amongst Bantu peoples, in which you cannot say the name of certain relatives, or any word which sounds like their name. By this stage, clicks had already entered Bantu languages from Khoisan ones [1], and had already started to spread through the native vocabulary. Hlonipha simply sped up that process — if you want to say a word you’re not allowed to say, it’s easy to just substitute a sound with a click. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_speech#Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_speech#Africa [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan_languages
sen 2y ago
Yes, many indigenous people can’t look at images of dead people.
- orthoxerox 2y ago
  They can't they just don't want to.
jazdw 2y ago
Yes - https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-protocols-what-the-media-needs-to-do-when-depicting-deceased-persons/97xq2otnt https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-prot...
aaron695 2y ago
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jaydeegee 2y ago

Yes it is a cultural practice in many indigenous aussie communities. https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-protocols-what-the-media-needs-to-do-when-depicting-deceased-persons/97xq2otnt https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-prot...

defrost 2y ago

The relatively unusual part is a post colonial government paying heed to indigenous beliefs via official channels ( ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ). Taboos around naming or visualising the recently deceased are more common than many westerners might think A taboo against naming the dead is a kind of word taboo whereby the name of a recently deceased person, and any other words similar to it in sound, may not be uttered. It is observed by peoples in many parts of the world, including the indigenous peoples of northern Australia, Siberia, Southern India, the Sahara, Subsaharan Africa, and the Americas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_on_the_dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_on_the_dead https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/mourning-an-aboriginal-death https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/mo... It's certainly no weirder than pretending to eat bits of a god's son. Addendum: For those interested, a language group map of Australia: https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_highres.jpg https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_high...

kaon_ 2y ago
Super-interesting side-tangent: There is a theory that the clicking sounds present in many African languages originate from taboos like these. Basically they would use a click as "you-know-who". Source: I heard it on TheGreatCourses at some point.
- defrost 2y ago
  That doesn't exactly mesh with the way that !Xhosa speakers talk about their language, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baEiWB2aM9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baEiWB2aM9Y https://youtu.be/KZlp-croVYw?t=16 https://youtu.be/KZlp-croVYw?t=16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language
- bradrn 2y ago
  It’s more complicated than that. The taboo in this case is hlonipha [0] amongst Bantu peoples, in which you cannot say the name of certain relatives, or any word which sounds like their name. By this stage, clicks had already entered Bantu languages from Khoisan ones [1], and had already started to spread through the native vocabulary. Hlonipha simply sped up that process — if you want to say a word you’re not allowed to say, it’s easy to just substitute a sound with a click. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_speech#Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidance_speech#Africa [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan_languages

sen 2y ago

Yes, many indigenous people can’t look at images of dead people.

orthoxerox 2y ago
They can't they just don't want to.

jazdw 2y ago

Yes - https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-protocols-what-the-media-needs-to-do-when-depicting-deceased-persons/97xq2otnt https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/indigenous-cultural-prot...

aaron695 2y ago

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