In recognition of, and with respect for the traditional owners of this land and their descendants, this activity is intended to help readers understand how the Ngambri* may have found shelter, sustenance and other lifestyle resources from the Aranda grasslands and bushland. Trading activity amongst networks of local tribal groups would also have complemented local resources.
Take the book Our Patch: Field Guide to the Flora of the Australian Capital Region along the Frost Hollow to Forest Walk and imagine that you are a member of the Ngambri Aboriginal group at the time Europeans came to live in this area. As you proceed along the Walk identify the resources that are available to provide shelter, food, weaving materials for baskets and bags, warm clothing, and ceremonial decorations.
Housing
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ITEMS
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MATERIALS
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Shelters (mia mias) |
Bushy shrubs/understorey plants, Eucalypt barks |
Useful tools, clothing and accessories
|
Axes, scrapers, choppers, chisels, stone wedges, grinding stones |
Rocks/rock flakes, animal bones |
|
Baskets and bags |
Spiny-headed Matrush (Lomandra longifolia), Lomandra multiflora, Dianella revoluta var. revoluta Acacia dealbata (Silver Wattle) and Pimelea sp. could be used for weaving. Dried kangaroo sinews could be used like thread |
|
Fishing nets Other fishing aids e.g. crushed leaves could be used to stun fish so that they could be caught more easily |
Woven Kangaroo Grass (Themada triandra) Austral Indigo (Indigofera australis) Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) |
|
Rugs, cloaks and ‘drum skin’ |
Possum and kangaroo skins provided warm clothing and drawn tight over the knees could be used like a drum skin |
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Bull-roarers (a musical instrument), spears, shields, boomerangs and spear throwers, coolamons (water holders), canoes and shelter. |
Wood of the
Native Cherry or Cherry Ballart (Exocarpus cupressiformis) and
the bark and wood of other woodand species including E. blakelyi, |
|
Personal decoration |
Bird feathers, clay, ash |
Foods
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Starchy foods, some protein: e.g. radish-shaped tubers could be eaten raw or cooked in an earth oven (and producing a dark sweet juice) Similarly, underground stems of bindweed, orchids and bulrushes were baked and skinned, then chewed to extract the starch. |
Yam Daisy or Murnong (Microseris lanceolata) Bulrush (Typha orientalis), particularly the tender white-to-green shoots available in spring; tubers of Convolvulus erubescens |
|
Ground seeds for damper flour |
Kangaroo Grass (Themada triandra) (although there is little evidence this was common in the Canberra region) |
|
Fruits (raspberries, native cherry, mistletoe, appleberry fruits) |
Native Raspberry (Rubus parvifolius) Apple Berry (Billardiera scandens var. scandens) Cherry Ballart/Native
Cherry |
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Drink |
The gum of
Silver Wattle |
|
Protein food sources |
Kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, wombats, wide variety of birds (including brolgas, emus, swans, ibis and other water birds, wild turkeys (Ardeotis kori), birds, possums, echidnas, skinks, Bogong Moths (Agrotis infusa), shingle back lizards, eggs, snakes, rats, cattle, sheep, platypus, fish, crayfish, yabbies (Cherax spp), platypus, ants, native cats, bandicoots, echidnas, rabbits, wild pigs, foxes, Acacia melanoxylon (Blackwood) seeds, Witchettty Grubs (Cossidae spp.) |
Medicines
|
For snake bite |
The sap of the Native cherry or Cherry ballart, Exocarpus Cupressiformis |
|
For fevers and gastro-intestinal problems |
Smoke from Eucalyptus dives – Broad–leaved Peppermint, and dissolved gum from Acacia dealbata |
References:
Australian National Botanical Gardens, n.d. Aboriginal Plant Use Walk with introduction by Beth Gott, ANBG, Canberra.
Cribb, AB and Cribb JW. 1981. Useful Wild Plants in Australia. Collins Publishers.
Davis Wright, W. 1923. Canberra, John Andrew and Co., Sydney.
Flood J. 1996. The Moth Hunters of the Australian Capital Territory: Aboriginal Traditional Life in the Canberra region, JM Flood.
Gale, J. 1927. Canberra History Of and Legends Relating to the Federal Capital Territory of the Commonwealth of Australia, AM Falick and Sons, Queanbeyan.
Gillespie, Lyall L. 1984. Aborigines of the Canberra Region, Canberra Publishing and Printing Co.
Isaacs, J. 1996. A Companion Guide to Bush Food, Lansdowne Publishing, Sydney.
Jackson-Nakano, A. 2001. The Kamberra: A History from the Records of Aboriginal Families in the Canberra-Queanbeyan District and Surrounds 1820-1927 and Historical Overview 1928-2001,
Kabaila, P.R. 1997. Belconnen’s Aboriginal Past: A Glimpse into the Archaeology of the Australian Capital Territory, Black Mountain Projects Pty Ltd.
Victoria Museum, 2001. Aboriginal Plant Use: Information Sheet. Victoria Museum, Melbourne.
* Now largely identifying as the Ngunnawal people (Jackson-Nakano, 2001), descendants of the Ngambri living in the area now known as Canberra, and previously also known as Nganbra, Kamberra, Kgamberry, Kembery, Kamberri and Canburry.