Lukar and Luki

Abstract

Lukar is one of a number of Ngarrindjeri words which have been used by Ngarrindjeri people as place-names on territory which at first contact was Kaurna land. These names have been publicized through the publications of Tindale and Berndt, who obtained them in the 1930s-40s. Lukar is a word in the Ngarrindjeri language meaning ‘tears’. It is primarily a common noun, not a place-name. However, in the 1930s the Ngarrindjeri Elder Albert Karlowan seems to have applied it generically to the spring sites created by Tjirbuki’s tears along the coast from Kingston Park to Port Willunga.