What an awesome new activity program – designed by our very own participants!
What an awesome new activity program – designed by our very own participants!
We would like to extend a huge thank you to the amazing team at Foundation Shine.
On June 3rd 2019, Skylight Murraylands chose to celebrate Reconciliation week by inviting people to join us on a walk from Sturt Reserve to Hume Reserve also known as Pomberuk. This place has been important to the Ngarrindjeri people for centuries, and a town camp remained there – outside the boundary of white Murray Bridge – until 1943. (Some of the photos show Hume Reserve )
Whilst walking and talking we also learnt that :
The river we know as the Murray River is known by the local Ngarrindjeri people as Millewa. The Ngarrindjeri Nation includes the city and townships of Renmark, Mannum, Murray Bridge and Meningie.
The land and the river have always been very important to the Ngarrindjeri People.. Near the river there were once many swamps and billabongs. These were flooded each spring when the melting of the winter snow in the Snowy Mountains filled the river. At this time of year the reeds grew more than two metres high. They had to burn paths through the reeds to reach the river bank. At flood time in the swampy country they lived on small islands.
We couldn’t help but try to imagine how beautiful the river and surrounds would have been back then and what daily life would have been like compared to now.
Many tribes lived on the river, more than in most other places in Australia. At the mouth of the river lived more than 3000 of the Ngarrindjeri people.
Here is their story of how the river was made:
Skylight came together to look towards the future and honour our newest Life Member, Yvonne Torr, at the 2017 AGM.