 Although popularly pronounced or , the original pronunciation at its official naming in 1913 was .Before white settlement, the area in which Canberra would eventually be constructed was seasonally inhabited by Indigenous Australians.Anthropologist Norman Tindale suggested the principal group occupying the region were the Ngunnawal people, while the Ngarigo lived immediately to the south of the ACT, the Wandandian to the east, the Walgulu also to the south, Gandangara people to the north and Wiradjuri to the north-west.