Ngarigo#Notable people

{{main|Ngarigo language}}

Ngarigu has been classified by linguist Robert Dixon as one of two Aboriginal Australian languages of the Southern New South Wales Group, the other being Ngunawal/Gundungurra.{{sfn|Dixon|2002|p=xxxv}} It was spoken in the area of Tumut by the Walgalu, in the Canberra-Queanbeyan-Upper Murrumbidgee region by people variously called the Nyamudy, the Namwich or the Yammoitmithang, and also as far south as Victoria's Omeo district.{{sfn|Koch|2016|p=145}} The heartland of Ngarigo speakers, in a more restricted sense, was Monaro.{{sfn|Koch|2016|p=145}}

John Lhotsky, Charles du Vé, John Bulmer,{{efn|Bulmer's list should be read with care, given Koch's note that:"15 of the items (from 'canoe' to 'wind') are matched with what should be the gloss of the next word on the list. Thus mamat 'canoe' should rather be glossed 'sun', the next word in the list, which other sources establish as /mamady/. " {{harv|Koch|2016|p=146}}}} George Augustus Robinson, Alfred W. Howitt and R. H. Mathews compiled early word-lists of the language. In 1963, Luise Hercus managed to recover many terms conserved by descendants living in Orbost.{{sfn|Koch|2016|pp=145–147}}

According to Norman Tindale, following R. H. Mathews,{{sfn|Mathews|1908|p=335}} the specific areas lands of the Ngarigo covered some {{convert|16,000|km2|abbr=on}}, centering on the Monaro tableland. The northern limits lay around Queanbeyan. It took in the Bombala River area, and ran south to the vicinity of Delegate and eastwards to Nimmitabel. Their western reaches extended to the Great Dividing Range of the Australian Alps.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=198}}

The Ngarigo clan and marriage structure consisted of a dual class system with matrilineal descent.{{sfn|Flood|2000|p=123}}

The Ngarigo would contact, via notched message sticks borne by messengers, other tribes such as the Walgalu and Ngunawal in order to arrange for all to meet up in the Bogong Mountains for the annual feasting off the Bogong moth colonies.{{sfn|Slattery|2015|p=121}} Corroborees, together with initiation ceremonies at a bora ring were also held, and while in the hills, the Ngarigo and other tribes culled plants like mountain celery and alpine baeckea (Baeckea gunniana) for medicinal ends, preparing the former as a paste for problems in the urinary tract, the latter as a sedative and cough medicine.{{sfn|Slattery|2015|p=128}}

With their hunting areas being stolen by European colonisers running sheep, many Ngarigo took on occasional labour on pastoral runs, but the overall population of the Canberra area suffered a drastic reduction as diseases introduced by the Europeans, such as smallpox, syphilis, influenza, measles and tuberculosis began to take their toll, so that the demise of the tribes was virtually completed within three generations.{{sfn|Gillespie|1991|p=217}}

Several tribes have been historically associated with the area around Canberra, with conflicting claims arising from the assessment of native title rights among those who descend from the Aboriginal peoples of the region. Descendants of the Ngarigo, Ngunawal and Walgalu have vied to assert primacy.

In 2013, an ACT Government anthropological report was released, which concluded that the struggle between various Aboriginal groups for the mantle of Canberra's "First People" was likely to remain uncertain. The report concluded that evidence gathered from the mid-19th century onward was too scant to support any family's claims.{{sfn|Towell|2013}}

{{colbegin|colwidth=22em}}

• Bemeringal ("mountain men", of the coastal tribes)
• Bombala tribe
• Bradjerak/Brajeraq (bara, "man,"+ djerak, "savage/angry")
• Cooma tribe
• Currak-da-bidgee
• Guramal, Nguramal, Gurmal
• Menero tribe
• Murring ("men")
• Ngaryo (common typo)

{{colend}}

Source: {{harvnb|Tindale|1974|p=198}}

• Ashleigh Barty (born in Ipswich, QLD. 1996), World No. 1 tennis player and National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia,{{cite news |last1=Myles |first1=Stephanie |title=Barty named Indigenous Ambassador |url=https://tennis.life/2018/04/16/barty-named-indigenous-ambassador/ |access-date=10 July 2021 |work=Tennis Life Media |date=16 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623160322/https://tennis.life/2018/04/16/barty-named-indigenous-ambassador/ |archive-date=23 June 2019}} won the 2019 French Open, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and the 2022 Australian Open. She wrote on Instagram in Feb 2022, "I’ve never been so proud to be a Ngarigo woman."{{cite web |last1=McMurtry |first1=Andrew |title=Aussie surf star's 'wholesome' Ash Barty tribute is perfect |url=https://www.news.com.au/sport/tennis/aussie-surf-stars-wholesome-ash-barty-tribute-is-perfect/news-story/d63089d6392eba83b7a8bbf599c5fd54 |website=news.com.au |access-date=20 December 2023 |date=4 March 2022}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|20em}}

{{refbegin|35em}}

• {{citation| title = ACT Government Genealogy Project: Our Kin Our Country: August 2012 Report

| publisher = ACT Government

| url = http://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/394385/CSD_GSR_web.pdf

| date = August 2012 | access-date = 24 February 2016

| ref = {{harvid|ACT Government|2012}}

}}

• {{cite book| title = On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way

| last = Blay | first = John | year = 2015

| author-link = John Blay

| publisher = NewSouth Publishing

| isbn = 978-1-742-23444-1

}}

• {{cite book| title = Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development

| last = Dixon | first = R. M. W. | year = 2002

| author-link = Robert M. W. Dixon

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MSqIBNJtG0AC&pg=PR35

| isbn = 978-0-521-47378-1

}}

• {{Cite book| title = The moth hunters: Aboriginal prehistory of the Australian Alps

| last = Flood | first = Josephine | year = 2000

| author-link = Josephine Flood

| orig-year = First published 1980

| publisher = Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

| isbn = 978-0-855-75085-5

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Canberra 1820–1913

| last = Gillespie | first = Lyall Leslie | year = 1991

| publisher = Australian Government Publishing Service

| isbn = 978-0-644-08060-6

}}

• {{Cite book| title = The native tribes of south-east Australia

| last = Howitt | first = Alfred William | year = 1904

| author-link = Alfred William Howitt

| publisher = Macmillan

| url = https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:319345/AU0094_NativeTribes_SE_Australia.pdf

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Documentary sources on the Ngarigu language: the value of a single recording.

| last = Koch | first = Harold | year = 2016

| title = Language, land & song: Studies in honour of Luise Hercus

| editor1-last = Austin | editor1-first = Peter K. | editor1-link = Peter Austin (linguist)

| editor2-last = Koch | editor2-first = Harold

| editor3-last = Simpson | editor3-first = Jane

| publisher = EL Publishing

| chapter-url = http://www.elpublishing.org/docs/6/01/LLS-Chapter-11-Koch.pdf

| pages = 145–157

}}

• {{cite book| title = Considering traditional Aboriginal affiliations in the ACT region: Draft Report

| last = Kwok | first = Natalie

| publisher = ACT government

| url = http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/442316/Draft-report_redacted.pdf

| date = January 2013

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Vocabulary of the Ngarrugu tribe, N.S.W.

| last = Mathews | first = R. H.

| author-link = Robert Hamilton Mathews

| journal = Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales

| year = 1908 | volume = 42 | pages = 335–342

| doi = 10.5962/p.359522 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41579844

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Australian Alps: Kosciuszko, Alpine and Namadgi National Parks

| last = Slattery | first = Deirdre | year = 2015

| publisher = Csiro Publishing

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RhXKCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA130

| isbn = 978-1-486-30172-0

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Ngarigo (NSW)

| last = Tindale | first = Norman Barnett | year = 1974

| author-link = Norman Tindale

| title = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names

| publisher = Australian National University

| chapter-url = http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/ngarigo.htm

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Canberra's first people still a matter for debate

| last = Towell | first = Noel

| newspaper = The Canberra Times

| url = http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberras-first-people-still-a-matter-for-debate-20130408-2hhq4.html | url-status = live

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130410103157/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberras-first-people-still-a-matter-for-debate-20130408-2hhq4.html

| date = 9 April 2013 | archive-date = 10 April 2013

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Moneroo

| last1 = du Vé | first1 = Charles

| last2 = Bulmer | first2 = John

| year = 1887

| title = The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent

| editor-last = Curr | editor-first = Edward Micklethwaite | editor-link = Edward Micklethwaite Curr

| publisher = J. Ferres | location = Melbourne

| volume = 3 | pages = 429–233

| chapter-url = https://archive.org/download/australianracei02currgoog/australianracei02currgoog.pdf

}}

{{refend}}

{{Aboriginal peoples in New South Wales}}

{{Victorian Aborigines}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales

Category:Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (state)

Category:Indigenous Australians in the Australian Capital Territory