Editing Canberra (section)

=== First Nations peoples ===
The first peoples of the Canberra area include the [[Ngunnawal]], Ngunawal and [[Ngambri]] peoples.<ref name=":8" /> Other groups claiming a connection to the land include the [[Ngarigo]] (who also lived directly to the south) and the Ngambri-Guumaal.<ref name=":9" /> Neighbouring groups include the Wandandian to the east, the Walgulu also to the south, [[Gandangara people]] to the north and [[Wiradjuri]] to the north-west.

The first British settlers into the Canberra area described two clans of Ngunnawal people resident to the vicinity. The ''Canberry'' or ''Nganbra'' clan lived mostly around Sullivan's Creek and had ceremonial grounds at the base of Galambary ([[Black Mountain (Australian Capital Territory)|Black Mountain]]), while the ''Pialligo'' clan had land around what is now [[Canberra Airport]].<ref name="bluett">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2908643 |title=ABORIGINES ADVISED AINSLIE TO CHOOSE DUNTROON |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=28 |issue=3,213 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=30 April 1954 |access-date=24 May 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16374628 |title=CANBERRA BLACKS. |newspaper=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |issue=27,886 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 May 1927 |access-date=24 May 2022 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The people living here carefully managed and cultivated the land with fire and farmed yams and hunted for food.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |url=https://services.anu.edu.au/files/guidance/Aboriginal_Heritage_Trail2.pdf |title=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Trail |publisher=Australian National University}}</ref>

Archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock paintings and engravings, burial places, camps and quarry sites as well as stone tools and arrangements.<ref name="Gillespie84">{{cite book |last=Gillespie |first=Lyall |title=Aborigines of the Canberra Region |publisher=Wizard (Lyall Gillespie) |location=Canberra |year=1984 |pages=1–25 |isbn=0-9590255-0-2}}</ref> Artefacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in the area 21,000 years previously.<ref name=":1">{{citation |last1=Flood |first1=J. M. |last2=David |first2=B. |last3=Magee |first3=J. |last4=English |first4=B. |year=1987 |title=Birrigai: a Pleistocene site in the south eastern highlands |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=22 |pages=9–22 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.1987.tb00159.x}}</ref>

Still today, Ngunnawal men into the present conduct ceremony on the banks of the river, Murrumbidgee River. They travel upstream as they receive their Totems and corresponding responsibilities for land management. 'Murrum' means 'Pathway' and Bidgee means 'Boss'.<ref name=":7" />

The submerged limestone caves beneath Lake Burley Griffin contained Aboriginal rock art, some of the only sites in the region.<ref name=":7" />

Galambary (Black Mountain) is an important Aboriginal meeting and business site, predominantly for men's business. According to the Ngunnawal and [[Ngambri]] people, Mt Ainslie is primarily for place of women's business. Black Mountain and Mount Ainslie are referred to as women's breasts. Galambary was also used by Ngunnawal people as an initiation site, with the mountain itself said to represent the growth of a boy into a man.<ref name=":7" />