Abstract
Universal Language: How Do We Incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Dr Chels Marshall, Senior Research Fellow, University of Wollongong NSW; Associate Fellow, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia
The language through which science names species is not neutral. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the common English names applied to culturally significant cetacean species — "killer whale" and "right whale" — carry the direct weight of colonial violence, commercial exploitation and the erasure of Indigenous kinship systems. This discussion paper, developed through the Unbroken Whispers: The Ripples Connecting Sea Kin project, examines the etymology of these names, their origins in the European whaling industry, and the ongoing cultural harm their uncritical use perpetuates in contemporary science and management.
For the Thaua people of the Yuin nation, the orca (Beowa) is not a killer — it is a reincarnated ancestor, a co-governance partner, and an Elder of the sea whose reciprocal relationship with saltwater communities was governed by the Law of the Tongue. For Aboriginal lore holders across the coast, the southern right whale is not the whale that was "right" to hunt — it is a Culturally Significant Entity embedded in songlines, ceremony and ancestral kinship. These names do not simply fail to honour those relationships. They actively encode the moment of their violation.
The paper traces the taxonomic and historical origins of both names, situating them within the broader colonial project of detaching species from their cultural geographies and redefining them through the lens of economic utility. It introduces the concept of Cultural Keystone Species (CKS) — species whose presence and symbolic value shape cultural identity in fundamental ways — and argues that the continued use of trauma-embedded common names marginalises Indigenous peoples from their cultural relations, kinships and inherent responsibilities to sea kin.
This paper does not propose the reform of Linnaean taxonomy. It asks something more precise: that scientists apply the standards their own discipline has established — rigour, neutrality, precision, and freedom from cultural bias — to the common language through which their findings are communicated. The use of traditional names such as Beowa for orca and Mamang for whale, alongside Latin nomenclature, is not a concession to cultural sensitivity. It is the correction of a scientific inconsistency and an act of integrity.
In moving toward a shared future in which Indigenous Ecological Knowledge is genuinely incorporated into cetacean welfare and management, language is not a peripheral issue. It is the first threshold. Maintaining trauma-related names is not conducive to the holistic, respectful and reciprocal integration that effective, ecologically grounded cetacean conservation requires.
Keywords: Cultural Keystone Species; Indigenous Ecological Knowledge; cetacean naming; cultural trauma; southern right whale; orca; Beowa; Mamang; songlines; biocultural diversity; Unbroken Whispers
Corresponding author: Dr Chels Marshall — H20critter@gmail.com