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New Aboriginal Article

Gundagai is a place of considerable reputed Aboriginal cultural significance, with both archaeological sites and antropological associations related to sacred and spiritual beliefs of the local tribes.

Acknowledgement of country

Acknowledgement of Country is a protocol used in Australia in relation to Indigenous Australian affairs.Reconcilitation Australia, 24 March 2010, Available [online] http://www.reconciliation.org.au/home/reconciliation-resources/facts-figures/q-a-factsheets/welcome-to-and-acknowledgement-of-country

The Gundagai area is part of the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri speaking people before and post European settlement, and also holds national significance to Indigenous Australians.  The floodplains of the Murrumbidgee below the present town of Gundagai were a frequent meeting place of the Wiradjuri. One indication of the ancient, sacred cultural landscape that is North Gundagai is the bora ring that has been identified close to town.

The location of Gundagai on a sizeable prehistoric highway, (the Murrumbidgee River), along with the significant and sacred Aboriginal ceremonial ground across all of North Gundagai, and other ancient archaeology, indicates it would have been an important ceremonial, mining, manufacturing and trading place for Aboriginal people before the arrival of the Europeans.Kabaila, P. (2005), 'High Country Footprints: Aboriginal pathways and movement in the high country of southeastern Australia: Recognising the ancient paths beside modern highways', Pirion Publishing Canberra  As with all ancient sacred places, particularly within still continuing Australian Aboriginal culture, the sacredness of Gundagai's amazing Australian Aboriginal cultural landscape continues despite colonial and later intrusion.

Gundagai Aboriginal Elders, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, attended the 1927 opening of the new Federal Parliament House in Canberra by the Duke of York. Jimmy Clements also known as King Billy whose traditional name was 'Yangar',http://australianmuseum.net.au/Aboriginal-Group-Sculpture-1925 walked forward to respectfully salute the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI of the United Kingdom and Elizabeth the Queen), and after that the two Elders were formally presented to the Royal couple as prominent citizens of Australia.http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/3853897?

Australian dialogue meeting
Aboriginal leaders Pat Dodson and Noel Pearson; the former Chief of the Australian Army and Governor of West Australia, Lieutenant General John Sanderson; and current Australian business leaders, met at a remote property on the Murrumbidgee River near Gundagai in September 2008 on the first stages of an Australian Dialogue to promote constitutional reform and structural change for Indigenous Australian people.  Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Northern Territory Indigenous leader, could not be at the gathering of esteemed senior Australians but was kept informed of the progress of talks.Rintoul, S. 12 Sept 2008 'Dialogue gets under way at indigenous leaders' retreat' The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24332900-5013172,00.html

Natural phenomena
A feeling of awe and reverence for that Almighty power that formed the universe was had in Gundagai at the appearance of the comet on Saturday 21 December 1844.http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/28651495? In 1859 the 'Aurora Australis' interfered with the operation of the Gundagai electric telegraph.http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13030060?  So great can be some rainfall downpours at Gundagai that old mining dams have been known to fill and burst.http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/70480232 A meteor seen at Gundagai on New Year's Day, 1876 was reported to have lit up the streets as though with magnesium wire,http://trove.nla.gov.au