Ngambri

Ngambri people

Regions with significant populations
Australia	over 400
Languages
Walgalu
Related ethnic groups
Other Aboriginal Australians

The Ngambri people (alternatively Ngamberri people) are a group of Indigenous Australians whose ancestors lived in the south-east of Australia, in and around Australia's capital city of Canberra.

It is sometimes said that the name for Canberra is derived from the word ′Ngambri′. Some say that ′Ngambri′ translates to ′cleavage′ and describes the space between Black Mountain and Mount Ainslie. Another is that the name Canberra might come from an early Aboriginal word meaning 'meeting place' or 'neutral area.'

Sites of significance

There are many sites of significance for Ngambri people in and around Canberra, including:

• Acton Peninsula, the site of the Ngambri people's Corroboree ground. The peninsula is now home to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
• Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain. The two mountains are the breasts of the spirit woman who lies in the Canberra landscape. The latter was formerly Black's Camp, a woman's business camp where women went to give birth.
• The site of Parliament House. The site is the womb of the spirit woman who lies in the Canberra landscape.
• The Molonglo River, called the Ngambri River by Ngambri people. The river is a provider of food for the indigenous people, including fish, turtles and crayfish.
• Sullivans Creek at the Australian National University campus. The area around Sullivans Creek, known as Ngambri Creek to the Ngambri people, was a campsite.
• Red Hill, another campground. Ngambri people camped at Red Hill year-round, including during the construction of Old Parliament House in the 1920s.
• An ochre site in Queanbeyan, where Ngambri people sourced brilliant white ochre for trade and for their own use. Ngambri people used ochres to decorate their bodies for song and dance and ceremony.
• Queanbeyan Showground, a campsite, gathering place and burial site for Ngambri people. In 1841 and onwards, Ngambri people gathered at Queanbeyan Showground at the start of winter for government blanket distribution.
• The Tuggeranong sandstone axe-grinding grooves. Ngambri women in the past prepared bread using native seeds at the site while men sharpened axes.
• The Wanniassa canoe tree, a gumtree used in the late 1800s or early 1900s to make a canoe which was paddled on the Molonglo River for a span of several summers.

Language

Ngambri people traditionally spoke the Walgalu language. As with other Australian Aboriginal languages, prior to the arrival of Europeans Walgalu language had been a purely spoken language and had no writing system.

Traditional diet

File:Microseris scapigera.JPG

Yam daisy, a staple in the traditional diet of Ngambri people

Yam daisies, now rare in the ACT due to land development, were a staple in the diet of traditional Ngambri People. Ngambri people also ate grass trees, bulrushes, native raspberries, apple berries and native cherries.

For protein, the witchetty grub, Bogong moth, emu, koala, cod, platypus, echidna, brolga and bush turkey were all represented in the traditional Ngambri people diet.

Government recognition

In 2005, in response to a question in the ACT Legislative Assembly about the status of the Ngambri people, the Chief Minister at the time, Jon Stanhope, stated that "Ngambri is the name of one of a number of family groups that make up the Ngunnawal nation." He went on to say that "the Government recognises members of the Ngunnawal nation as descendants of the original inhabitants of this region. There is no specific recognition of the Ngambri group outside of this broader acknowledgement."

In 2009, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope reaffirmed the Ngunnawal people as the traditional owners of Canberra after five signs on the Canberra border were defaced to include the Ngambri name. Stanhope at the time said that "one family that previously identified as Ngunnawal now identifies as Ngambri" and "this is causing confusion and distress within the community."

Disputes

Disputes over the traditional ownership of Canberra and the surrounding region

The comprehensive dislocation of Aboriginal populations following European settlement has led to a high proportion of Indigenous Australians who do not know their traditional origins. Australian Bureau of Statistics records show a high number of Aboriginal families in the ACT affected by the removal of children from their parents in the Stolen Generation era.

Perhaps in part due to the dislocation of indigenous populations there has at times been disputes between Ngambri and Ngunnawal people who both claim they are Canberra's traditional owners. The debate came to a head in April 2009 when five "Welcome to Canberra" signs on the Canberra border were defaced by replacing the words "Ngunnawal Country" with "Ngambri Country". The signs were quickly restored by the ACT Government, with the Chief Minister Jon Stanhope promising that the signs would be monitored closely in the future.

In December 2012, the Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council made three applications for native title:

• McQuoid Street, Queenbeyan, NSW;
• Karabar, Queenbeyan, NSW; and
• Erin Street, Queenbeyan, NSW.

For each application, the court determined that native title does not exist.

In 2013, an ACT Government anthropological report was released concluding that the struggle between various indigenous groups for the mantle of Canberra's "first people" is likely to remain uncertain. The report stated that evidence gathered from the mid-1700s onward was too scant to support any group's claims.

Aboriginal Tent Embassy

In 2002, a group of Ngambri people burnt down a humpy and dismantled tents at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. At the time, prominent Ngambri elder Matilda House said her people were "cleaning up the site and making it respectable so that when visitors do come here we will be proud". House had been closely involved with the tent embassy since it was founded in 1972 and remembers the four men who founded the embassy as heroes. House had a vision for the future of the tent embassy:

I'd like to see the tent embassy used for a place of education and proper understanding of protocols and the proper understanding of our identity. It could be achieved by looking at a proper way of having a place where Aboriginal people can do what they want and protest. But in a manner that will get the message across and (provide) a really good place for educating the rest of the community. Not this thing where buses will pull up and sometimes people get told the wrong story.

Prominent Ngambri people

• Louise Brown, Ngambri elder and member of the ACT Heritage Council. Brown is the sister of Matilda House.
• Matilda House, Ngambri elder. House calls herself a "Canberry" woman. In February 2008, House became the first Indigenous person to lead a Welcome to Country at an opening of Parliament.
• Paul House, the son of Matilda House. He is a manager at the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and a didgeridoo player.
• Richard "Dick" Lowe, a labourer and stockman. Lowe worked on the stations in the southern part of the Australian Capital Territory with "Black" Harry Williams in the late 1800s. Lowe was the husband of Florence Ellen Lowe and fathered all or some of her children, who were all stolen from her prior to the First World War.
• Shane Mortimer, Ngambri elder
• Jya Ngambri, a Ngambri woman. In 1827 Ngambri had a daughter, Nanny, with James Ainslie, after whom Mount Ainslie is named.
• "Black" Harry Williams, a labourer and stockman. Williams worked on the stations in the southern part of the Australian Capital Territory with Lowe in the late 1800s. Williams claimed that he saw a group of warriors attack and kill a yowie in around 1847.
• Harold "Crow" Williams. Williams, born in Cowra in 1946, was the brother of Matilda House. As well as being a strong advocate for Indigenous affairs, he was a founding member of the first Indigenous Rugby League Football team and has a conference room named after him at Boomanulla Oval in Narrabundah.
• Mervyn "Boomanulla" Williams. Williams was the father of Matilda House. He was a prominent sporting identity and one of the founding members of the Redfern All Blacks Rugby League Club. "Boomanulla" means "speed and lightning" in Aboriginal language. The Boomanulla Oval in Narrabundah is named after Williams.

Further reading

• Ann Jackson-Nakano, The Kamberri: a history from the records of Aboriginal families in the Canberra-Queanbeyan district and surrounds 1820-1927 and historical overview 1928 -2001 Aboriginal History Monograph 8, ANU Press, 2001.

External links

• 'The Death and Resurrection of the Ngunnawal: A Living History'
• Ngambri Inc.