Ngarigo Nation

Our Stories

Our stories tell us who we are, where we come from, what has happened to us, what is happening now and what is likely to happen in the future. We all experience life through the lens of our own beliefs and experiences. One event can be interpreted in many different ways according to the lens we are looking through.

For Ngarigo people, the lens of our history has been greatly disturbed by the colonization process. The passing down of stories and knowledge is strong in some areas and patchy or absent in others. The  diaspora of our people, the deliberate breaking up of our culture and the spreading of our people far and wide across the country has resulted in many different lived experiences. This is reflected in the different types of stories that Ngarigo people have to share. It can also be reflected in different interpretations of our shared stories because of different levels of accessibility to the stories. This needs to be respected.

We offer four types of stories:

Family stories – these are personal and represent the journey of the family and/or the author as a Ngarigo Tribesperson,

Pre Contact stories – tell the stories of the time before colonization. These stories often rely on the accounts of early colonists and anthropologists from first-hand experience and from information given to them by Ngarigo people and Aboriginals from other tribes. In some cases stories are passed down within families. When inaccuracies are identified they will be addressed, stories from this era will always be a work in progress.

Colonization stories -tell the many stories that give insight into the impact colonization had on Ngarigo people and the other tribes in the region. There is much truth to be told and histories rewritten with these stories.

Contemporary stories capture the strengths of Ngarigo people and showcase our hopes for the future.