{"id":531674,"date":"2026-03-10T19:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531674\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:34:14","slug":"cory-bernardi-criticised-over-damaging-videos-appearing-to-mock-traditional-kaurna-language-indigenous-australians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531674\/","title":{"rendered":"Cory Bernardi criticised over \u2018damaging\u2019 videos appearing to mock traditional Kaurna language | Indigenous Australians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cory Bernardi has been criticised by Adelaide\u2019s traditional owners for mocking the Kaurna language in videos posted to social media.<\/p>\n

The lead candidate for One Nation in the upcoming South Australian election has posted two videos to Facebook highlighting use of the traditional language on major landmarks, describing it as \u201cempty symbolism\u201d and saying using Aboriginal language was \u201ctrying to erase our history\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the first video posted in mid-February, Bernardi is standing outside Adelaide University and talking about a banner with words printed on it which say \u201cNiina Marni\u201d, which translates to, \u201care you good?\u201d or \u201chello, how are you?\u201d in the local Kaurna language.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHere I am at the Niina Marni centre,\u201d Bernardi says in the video. \u201cI don\u2019t know what that is and nor does anyone else to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are we putting names or banners or flags on our university campuses that don\u2019t mean anything to anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n

The wording was a \u201crespectful greeting to people\u201d, Kaurna elder Lynette Crocker told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go to Italy, you\u2019re expected to know some Italian, and that\u2019s just the same respect that Aboriginal people are wanting to have, the same as everybody else,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just about respect for one another as human beings and how we communicate with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a second video, posted on Saturday, Bernardi stands outside the Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital and gestures at a sign with Aboriginal language printed on it.<\/p>\n

The sign says: \u201cNgangkiku Ngartuku Kukuwardli\u201d. In Kaurna language, it translates to, \u201ca place of health that cares for women during pregnancy and birthing, babies, children, and young people\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the video, Bernardi mispronounces the words, then says:\u201cWhy? Why are we doing this to ourselves? No one knows where the Googa Waggly centre is. They just know where the women\u2019s and children\u2019s hospital needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together, both videos have more than 50,000 likes on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Crocker said the videos were \u201cdisappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that they have to pick on Aboriginal people to display their disgruntledness,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s the lowest form of communication when he picks on Aboriginal people and [we are at] the bottom end of the spectrum when they [One Nation] have got nothing to say or offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SA government did not directly address the videos when asked but said the Labor party was \u201cfocused on an inclusive society that brings people together, not tearing people apart with division\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Liberal party spokesperson for Aboriginal affairs, Josh Teague, said Bernardi\u2019s comments were \u201cgrossly offensive\u201d. He said that while he thought some dual naming was \u201cover the top\u201d, Bernardi had \u201cmisjudged the practical nature of South Australians\u2019 views on this subject\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis focus shows how little One Nation cares about the important things to South Australians, like affordability, a better healthcare system and safer communities,\u201d he said. \u201cThe notion that some South Australians will get an extra vote on polling day due to the colour of their skin is fundamentally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the state opposition leader, Ashton Hurn, announced that her party will preference One Nation over Labor in all seats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kaurna elders have been working on dual naming policies with both the Adelaide city council and successive state governments since the early 2000s. Elder Jeffrey Newchurch, who has been leading that charge, told Guardian Australia he wanted to gain recognition for his people and further reconciliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working together with the non-Aboriginal community to correct the wrongness that\u2019s been done to us and the denial that\u2019s been done to Aboriginal people,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have dual naming and to have that language on display is a sense of identity that brings us together and the importance of knowing country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said political rhetoric such as Bernardi\u2019s was \u201cdamaging\u201d to the cause and that it enabled people to \u201cspew hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows for people to launch their discriminating views upon us Aboriginal people and they\u2019re targeting a language and a people that were denied,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re growing that position for people to come out of the darkness and put these views forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelaide University (Tirkangkaku) said it was \u201cproud to share, honour and promote its legacy and continued practice of First Nations languages, culture and people as an important part of Australia\u2019s heritage\u201d.<\/p>\n

One Nation SA has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cory Bernardi has been criticised by Adelaide\u2019s traditional owners for mocking the Kaurna language in videos posted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-531674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}