The Ngadlu Padninthi Kamangka mural acknowledges the Kaurna people as the traditional owners and custodians of Adelaide and the Adelaide plains. Commissioned by the University of Adelaide’s Faculty of the Professions, the mural locates the university on the Karrawirra Pari (Torrens River) and celebrates the tens of thousands of years of Kaurna people living and meeting on this land.
The mural reflects the story of Kaurna Dreaming ancestor, Tjilbruke. Following the death of his nephew, Tjilbruke carried his nephew’s body down the Fleurieu Peninsula coast and eventually transformed into an ibis. The luki (tears) of grief that he shed along the way formed the freshwater springs between Wariparringa (Marion) and Nangarang (Cape Jervis), known as the Tjilbruke Dreaming Tracks. The design features tarnta (the red kangaroo), a coolamon (carrying vessel) and the unique red and white Kaurna shield.
The mural was developed by Narisha Cash, a descendant of the Jingliand Mudburra people, and Allan Sumner, a Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Yunkunytjatjara man, in conjunction with a group of Kaurna students, linguists and elders, including Lewis Yerloburka O’Brien. It is not only a celebration of the richness and vastness of Kaurna culture and oral history. As its title aptly suggests, it is also a statement of reconciliation: ‘Ngadlu Padninthi Kamangka’ or ‘We Walk Together’.
