Long Island (Lenteilin) is just south (downstream) of the Railway Bridge at Murray Bridge and features in Ngarrindjeri stories that give us an understanding of their connection with their land including the animals and plants in it.
For the Ngarrindjeri the over-arching importance in the stories is of Ngurunderi as law-giver and shaper of the distinctive landscape. (Below is an abridged version of the story) We acknowledge the Ngarrindjeri Elders past and present as the custodians of the stories and how they demonstrate the Ngarrindjeri Nation connection with the land and all it contains.
In the Dreaming, Ngurunderi travelled down the Murray River in a bark canoe, in search of his two wives who had run away from him. At that time the river was only a small stream.
A giant Murray Cod called Ponde swam ahead of Ngurunderi, widening the river with sweeps of its tail.
Ngurunderi chased the fish, trying to spear it from his canoe.
Here at Murray Bridge he threw a spear, but missed. That spear became Long Island (Lenteilin).
Further down the river at Tailem Bend (Tagalang) he threw another spear; where the spear hit Ponde in the tail the giant fish surged ahead and created a long straight stretch in the river.
Ngurunderi eventually caught Ponde in the shallow waters of Lake Alexandrina (where the fresh and the salt waters come together) There he cut Ponde into pieces and each piece became a different native species of fish (some fresh-water and some salt-water).
Ngurunderi was still searching for his wives. He followed their trail across the lakes to the coast. He found them as they were crossing between Cape Jervis and Kangaroo Island. In that time the land joined Kangaroo Island to the Fleureu Peninsula. Because Ngurunderi possessed magical powers he called up the waters and the women were swept away and drowned, becoming the Pages Islands.
Ngurunderi threw his bark canoe into the sky to become the Milky Way.
Ngurunderi dived into the waters before rising to the sky to become the brightest star in the Milky Way.
Live river data provided by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority: http://livedata.mdba.gov.au/murray-bridge
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