Dictionary

whitefella en · NOUN

Etymology

From white + fella.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:chiefly Australian Aboriginal) A white person (Caucasian person), especially white settler in Australia, especially a man (especially as opposed to an Aboriginal Australian).
   • 2003, transcript, in Peter McConchie (recorder), Elders: Wisdom from Australia′s Indigenous Leaders, page 18, The learning isn′t written on paper as whitefellas′ knowledge is. We carry it instead in our heads and we′re talking from our hearts, for the land. You fellas, whitefellas, put us in the back all the time, like we′ve got no language for the land. But we′ve got the true story for the land.
   • ‘I can hold my licker. Not like my old man, and he's the whitefella.’ 2009, Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones, Allen & Unwin, published 2009, page 33:
   • Indigenous self-representation was contained within a mainstream vision. This was clearly a whitefellas′ appropriation of blackfellas′ dreaming. 2008, Michael Cohen, Paul Dwyer, Laura Ginters, “Performing “Sorry Business”: Reconciliation and Redressive Action”, in Graham St. John, editor, Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance, page 86:
   • 2008, Howard Pedersen, metatextual remark, in Steve Kinnane, 5: Marda Marda: Two Bloods: Blood History, Rachel Perkins, Marcia Langton (editors), First Australians: An Illustrated History, page 148, Jandamarra was getting to know two things here. He was getting to know the magic of his own country and at the same time getting to know the whitefellas, and he was very good at knocking around with the whitefellas.

Forms

Coordinates

blackfellow

Descendants

waitbala

Synonyms

gubbah · migaloo · balanda