'This book is published in fulfilment of a promise made by Ronald and Catherine Berndt to their Aboriginal friends of the Lower Murray River area of South Australia. The promise was that the social history of the Narrinyeri people would be made available to their descendants and to all Australians. For the Berndts, the fieldwork, undertaken in 1939, 1942 and 1943, was among their first encounters with indigenous Australians. It is sad that its publication is among their last. Ronald Berndt died in 1990 before the manuscript was published. Catherine Berndt survived her husband to write the acknowledgements for the book, but she too died in 1994.' (Introduction)