Ngambri facts for kids
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Australia |
over 400 |
| Languages | |
| Walgalu | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Aboriginal Australians | |
The Ngambri are an Aboriginal people who say they are the traditional owners of the land where Australia's capital city, Canberra, is now located. Their traditional language is called Walgulu (also known as Guumaal). The Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council represents them.
The Ngambri name also refers to a specific place in southeastern Australia. This area is near Black Mountain, along Sullivans Creek, and down to the Molonglo River.
There has been some discussion about how much land the Ngambri traditionally owned. Also, people have debated how different they are from the Walgalu people. This is because Canberra is located near the traditional borders of the Ngarigo and Ngunawal peoples.
Contents
Language
Researchers have studied old word lists from the 1800s. These lists suggest that the language spoken around Canberra and Queanbeyan was a dialect of Ngarigu. This dialect is now called Nyamudy or Namadgi.
Family groups who spoke this dialect included the Nammage, Nammitch, Yammoit, and Ngemutch.
Traditional Diet
The Ngambri people ate many different foods found in their local environment.
One very important food was the Murnong plant. Sadly, Murnong is now rare in the Canberra area because of modern development.
Other plants they ate included grass trees, bulrushes, native raspberries, apple berries, and native cherries.
For protein, the Ngambri people hunted and gathered various animals. These included witchetty grubs, Bogong moths, emus, koalas, cod fish, platypuses, echidnas, brolgas, and bush turkeys.
Traditional Locality
The Ngambri Aboriginal family was part of the Nyamudy clan. They lived in the area around Sullivan's Creek, stretching from the Molonglo River to what is now Dickson. This area also included the eastern side of Black Mountain.
Europeans first settled this location in October 1831. John MacPherson was given 640 acres of land there. His home, called Springbank, was on high ground above the river. MacPherson, his wife Helen, and their children were the first European family to live in what is now the Australian Capital Territory. Their son, John Alexander MacPherson, was likely the first European boy born on the Limestone Plains.
To the east of Springbank was a larger property called Camberry station (later Canberry). This station covered what are now the suburbs of Acton and Turner.
People
The Ngambri family was connected to the Wiradjuri people who lived on the Cowra Mission. They spoke a language similar to the Wiradjuri language spoken on the Cowra Plains. The Wiradjuri people at Cowra, numbering around 10,500, included many family groups living in and around the Cowra Mission in New South Wales.
Name of Canberra
Some people who identify as Ngambri say that the name for Canberra comes from the "Ngambri" family. They believe this means the Canberra area is Ngambri territory.
However, others say the name Canberra came from Camberry/Canberry Cottage. This was the name of the first European house built by a property overseer who came from Cambridge, England. Later, it became the rectory for St John's Church. Over time, the spelling changed to 'Canberra' to sound more classical.
Government Recognition
In 2005, the Chief Minister of the ACT, Jon Stanhope, was asked about the Ngambri people. He stated that "Ngambri is the name of one of a number of family groups that make up the Ngunnawal nation." He also said that the government recognizes members of the Ngunnawal nation as the original inhabitants of the region. He added that the Ngambri group is not specifically recognized outside of this broader acknowledgment.
The Ngunnawal people were recognized as the traditional first people because many European people with Ngunnawal heritage moved to Canberra from Yass in the 1920s and 1930s to find work. Later, in 1996, the ACT Government encouraged all Indigenous people living in Canberra to unite. This was done to increase their chances of gaining native title rights.
In 2009, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope again said the Ngunnawal people were the traditional owners of Canberra. This happened after five "Welcome to Canberra" signs on the border were changed to include the Ngambri name. Stanhope noted that "one family that previously identified as Ngunnawal now identifies as Ngambri." He said this was "causing confusion and distress within the community." The reason for this change was that the recently formed 'new tribe' had not been successful in getting land rights.
As of 2022, the ACT government does not officially recognize Ngambri people as the traditional owners of the ACT. However, other groups, like the National Museum of Australia, do acknowledge them.
Disputes Over Traditional Ownership
After European settlement, many Aboriginal populations were moved from their lands. There were also marriages between different Aboriginal groups and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. This has made it hard for some Indigenous Australians to know their exact traditional origins.
Records from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that some Aboriginal families in the ACT were affected by the Stolen Generations. During this time, mixed-race children were taken from their parents. Because Indigenous populations were moved and intermarried since the 1900s, there are disagreements today. People who say they are descendants of the Ngambri family of the Nyamudy/Namadgi, Ngarigo, and Ngunnawal people all claim to be Canberra's traditional owners.
One family, who first said they were Ngunnawal, later changed their claim to be from the Ngambri family. This disagreement became very clear in April 2009. Five "Welcome to Canberra" signs on the Canberra border had the words "Ngunnawal Country" replaced with "Ngambri Country." The ACT Government quickly put the original signs back. Chief Minister Jon Stanhope promised that the signs would be watched closely.
This action made the problem worse. As a result, the Government paid for research into Aboriginal family histories. The research found there wasn't enough family history evidence to say for sure that the Ngambri were the only traditional owners of the ACT region. It suggested they might have been just a family group of the Nyamudy/Namedjii tribe.
In 1974, Norman Tindale created a map of Aboriginal tribal boundaries. He placed the southern border of Ngunawal country close to the ACT boundary. However, later research showed this was incorrect. The boundary was actually near Sutton on the Yass River.
The question of who the first people of the Canberra district were is still debated. It is unclear if the Nyamudy/Namedjii were a separate tribe or part of the Ngarigo nation from the Monaro region.
In December 2012, the Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council applied for native title for three areas in Queanbeyan, NSW. These were McQuoid Street, Karabar, and Erin Street. For each application, the court decided that native title did not exist.
In 2013, the ACT Government released a report called Our Kin Our Country. This report aimed to settle the dispute about the first people of the area. It found that the Ngunnawall were not the original inhabitants of the ACT, but they did attend corroborees (traditional gatherings). The report concluded that evidence from the mid-1700s onwards was too limited to fully support any current group's claims. It showed that the ACT land had been part of the Ngarigo tribe's territory, the Nyamudy territory, or split between the Nyamudy and Namadgi people. It remains unclear whether the Nyamudy/Namadgi tribe occupied the whole Queanbeyan-Canberra-Namadgi area, or if the Queanbeyan people were part of the Ngarigo people of the Monaro.
In 2022, the Ngambri took the ACT government to the Supreme Court. They sought official recognition of their status as traditional owners.
Aboriginal Tent Embassy
In 2002, a group of Ngambri people burned down a small shelter and took down tents at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. At the time, a respected Ngambri elder named Matilda House said her people were "cleaning up the site and making it respectable." She wanted visitors to feel proud when they came there.
Matilda House had been very involved with the tent embassy since it started in 1972. She remembered the four men who founded the embassy as heroes. House had a vision for the future of the tent embassy. She wanted it to be "a place of education and proper understanding of protocols and the proper understanding of our identity." She believed it could be "a really good place for educating the rest of the community."
Notable People
- Onyong, who was a leader of the Ngambri when Europeans first arrived.
- Matilda House, a well-known elder and activist.
- Shane Mortimer, a Ngambri-Guumaal elder and activist.
