Australian Aboriginal enumeration facts for kids

The Australian Aboriginal counting system was a clever way people used to keep track of numbers. It was often used with message sticks. These sticks were like invitations or announcements sent to nearby groups, letting them know about important events. These events could be things like corroborees (special ceremonies), friendly fights, or even ball games. The numbers helped explain things like how many "moons" (days or months) until the meeting, or how many camps away the meeting place was. The person carrying the message stick would also share the details by talking.

Some people used to think that Aboriginal Australians could only count to two or three. But this isn't true! A researcher named Alfred William Howitt studied people in southeastern Australia in the late 1800s and showed that they had much more complex ways of counting. Even though he proved it, this old myth sometimes still gets repeated today.

The Wotjobaluk people from the Wimmera region used a counting system that was common in many parts of Victoria. Alfred Howitt found that this system was used by almost all the groups he met in the southeast. It's really interesting because the names for numbers were based on different parts of the body! People would count by touching parts of their body, starting from their little finger, usually on the left hand.

Wotjobaluk Counting System

The Wotjobaluk counting system used body parts to represent numbers. Here's how it worked:

Another similar system was used by the Wurundjeri people, who spoke the Woiwurrung language. An elder named William Barak shared this information with Alfred Howitt. In their system, once they reached the "top of the head," they would continue counting by using the same body parts on the other side of the body.

Other Languages

Many different Aboriginal languages had their own ways of counting. Here are some examples of how numbers were said in various languages:

See also

• Wurundjeri
• Alfred Howitt