Wadjela
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A white person. Australia
"It was the wadjelas that created the ‘one drop’ rule, that defined anybody with a single bla(c)k ancestor as black. […] ‘Traditional’ is such loaded language, enshrining a belief that we are stuck in the past rather than being one of the most adaptable cultures in history, that some of us are using ‘classical’ instead when referring to any part of Aboriginal culture that appears similar to what it is imagined we produced before wadjela came."
- 1 Relating to white people. Australia
"Finally, the colonisers were attempting genocide, they wanted us all dead. If I identified with my wadjela ancestry at the expense of my Aboriginality, the colonisers win."
Example
More examples"It was the wadjelas that created the ‘one drop’ rule, that defined anybody with a single bla(c)k ancestor as black. […] ‘Traditional’ is such loaded language, enshrining a belief that we are stuck in the past rather than being one of the most adaptable cultures in history, that some of us are using ‘classical’ instead when referring to any part of Aboriginal culture that appears similar to what it is imagined we produced before wadjela came."
Etymology
Borrowed from Nyunga wadjela, itself from English white fella.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.