English

Alternative forms

• blackfella
• blackfeller
• black fellow

Noun

blackfellow ‎(plural blackfellows)

1. (Australia, now usually considered offensive) A (male) Australian Aborigine. [from 19th c.]
   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber & Faber 2003, p. 40:

     He was squatting on the ground like a blackfellow, quiet and still and cunning.

   • 2000, Daryl Tonkin, Carolyn Landon, Jackson's Track: Memoir of a Dreamtime Place, page 256,

     It was as if the blackfellas were their property, and the Board could do with them as they saw fit.

   • 2002, James Roberts, At the Bar, in Rebekah Clarkson (editor), Forked Tongues: A Delicious Anthology of Poetry and Prose, page 29,

     A blackfella and a whitefella are sitting at the bar. The whitefella says to the blackfella eh boss, whadya reckon?

     The blackfella says since you ask, I consider it a metaphor of the historic case of the Coorong massacre of 1840.

   • 2007, Noel Olive, Enough is Enough: A History of the Pilbara Mob, page 212,

     Most police officers had no blackfella cultural background, no knowledge of Aboriginal priorities in life, yet they were the power in the town.

Usage notes

The word has been reclaimed to some extent by aborigines to describe themselves, but its use by white people is now usually considered racially offensive.

Coordinate terms

• whitefellow