Ngurunderi

Ngarrindjeri · deity · Ngarrindjeri traditional religion; continuing · deity

Ngurunderi is the pre-eminent creator-ancestor of the Ngarrindjeri and neighbouring Lower Murray peoples. In the Dreaming he travelled down the Murray in a bark canoe pursuing an enormous Murray cod, Pondi, whose thrashing tail cut the narrow stream into the broad river, the lakes and the Coorong. He also pursued his two wives, who had fled from him and had broken law by eating forbidden bony bream; at Cape Jervis he raised the sea and drowned them, and they became the Pages Islets. Having ordered the country and named its places, Ngurunderi crossed to Kangaroo Island (Kangarilla), dived into the sea to cleanse himself, and ascended to become a bright star in the sky. The fullest recorded account was given by the initiated Yaraldi man Albert Karloan to R.M. Berndt in 1939.

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