Ancestral Beings
© Jacob Stengel is the artist.
Ancestral beings and their actions allow Kaurna people to understand the world and their place in it. Kaurna language in the form of placenames, songs, and stories records ancient events that have contributed to the shape of the land and its contents. These uses of language provide guidance on how to survive and flourish in the local environment. Ancestral beings and their actions allow Kaurna people to understand the world and their place in it. Kaurna language in the form of placenames, songs, and stories records ancient events that have contributed to the shape of the land and its contents. These uses of language provide guidance on how to survive and flourish in the local environment.
This is the caption for the above video, Uncle Major Moogy.
Left: a karakoranyi basket. Right: Close-up of the weave of a karakoranyi basket. Credit
One quiet, motionless night a dark figure lurked down th road. As it walked it stopped and turned right, just like a robot, it walked up a crooked path to a house. It walked up the wonky porch and opened the door ‘creak’ the squealed as it opened.The figure stepped stepped inside and shut the door behind it. One quiet, motionless night a dark figure lurked down th road. As it walked it stopped and turned right, just like a robot, it walked up a crooked path to a house. It walked up the wonky porch and opened the door ‘creak’ the squealed as it opened.The figure stepped stepped inside and shut the door behind it.
After a while he told his new salmon mother that his eye hurt. She asked the salmon boy if he had been sure he had returned all the left over parts of his meal to the beach. The boy looked around and found an eye from his meal that he had missed properly attending to. He threw the eye onto the beach and soon his own eye stopped hurting. After a long time when the salmon people returned to the rivers to spawn, salmon boy went with them. There he was caught by his own mother who recognized him by a necklace he was wearing. She set this salmon aside and after a day or two the boy’s head emerged from the fish’s mouth. After a few more days the boy came out entirely leaving his salmon skin behind.
The one and only Salmon Head Boy. © The Internet 2022
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The powerful Ngurunderi is the most significant Ancestral Being for Tanganekald people. One episode of the story of Ngurunderi tells of him chasing Pondi, the Murray Cod, down the River Murray, creating the twists and turns of the waters as they travelled. Ngurunderi's brother-in-law Nepeli spears Pondi at Raukkan and Ngurunderi joins him there. Ngurunderi cuts Pondi into pieces. He then throws pieces of Pondi's flesh back into the water where each piece becomes a different type of Coorong fish. The diversity of fish in the Coorong channel link back to these Ancestral Beings. Another of Ngurunderi's many adventures has him chasing his wives along the coast through Ramindjeri country (where Victor Harbour stands today) and eventually over to Kangaroo Island. In doing so he creates a pathway to the land of the dead. He then throws his canoe into the sky and creates the Milky Way.
Legend: 1 – Ngurunderi and the Murray Cod, 2 – Ngurunderi chases the Murray Cod, 3 – The Cod is speared, 4 – Ngurunderi makes camp by the lake, 5 – Ngurunderi chases his wives who escape by raft, 6 – Ngurunderi fights a sorcerer, 7 – Ngurunderi camps by the Coorong, 8 – Ngurunderi continues the chase, 9 – Ngurunderi enters the spirit world.