WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

flickering light and was joined by performers on stilts whose ceremonially attired
figures echoed the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro figures (Blundell et al. 2009) – the other
aesthetically striking painted image in the region.
From the first time Wanjinas were seen by Europeans in the nineteenth century, they
have fascinated all who have set eyes on them. George Grey was the first European to
record and publish painted Wanjina figures in the Glenelg River area during his
expedition to the Kimberley in 1837–1839. Grey's reproduction 'was to become the
most historically significant Aboriginal rock painting recorded by Europeans in the
nineteenth century' (McNiven and Russell 2005). These Wanjina images fascinated
Europeans; they were recorded and circulated at a time when the cave art of Europe
had not yet been discovered in France, 'Bushman' art in South Africa was still
unknown, and the most spectacular tombs of the Egyptian Pharoahs had not been
excavated (Edwards 1991). Early European observers interpreted the Wanjina figures
as representations of foreign visitors to the Kimberley coast. Theories about who
these visitors may have been pointed to the Japanese, eleventh–century Moors, and
south–east Asian fishermen. It was not until the 1930s that the significance of these
figures to Aboriginal people began to be better understood by the wider Australian
community through the work of Rev. J R B Love and A P Elkin (McNiven and
Russell 2005). Elkin (1930) noted that 'there do not seem to be any features of the
wandjina and associated paintings that might be supposed foreign to the ideas and
practices of the natives.'
The Aboriginal cosmology associated with the Wanjina was not revealed to the non-
Indigenous audience until the early 1920s and 30s and it was not until Ian Crawford
published his definitive book 'The art of the Wandjina' (Crawford 1968) that this
knowledge became available to a wider audience (Donaldson 2007, 13).
As noted above, Wanjina figures are often imposingly large, usually depicted front-on
with round white faces, black staring eyes and no mouth, and what appears to be a
halo-like ring encircling the head (Vinnicombe and Mowaljarlai 1995b, Blundell et al.
2009). As noted by Taçon (2000), Wanjinas are often shown horizontally, as if lying
down, so as to make them as large as possible on a rock shelter's available surface.
Sometimes only the head or the head and upper body are shown and they are made
strikingly eye-catching by combining shades of red, yellow and white into patterned
infill with dashes and stripes (Taçon 1999).
To the Traditional Owners, the Wanjina image is a very powerful one, perpetuating
life through the metaphors of rain, regeneration and the symbolic acts of repainting
(Vinnicombe and Mowaljarlai 1995a). During the wet season when the air is saturated
in moisture, the painted images take on a new life as the white huntite and other kinds
of ochre absorb moisture enriching the colour and giving them a vividness, a glow
that reflects the power of the images (Redmond 2001).
The potent sacred snake known as Wunggurr (or Ungud) is often also depicted
alongside the Wanjina and naturalistic animal paintings of kangaroos, snakes,
goannas, birds, tortoise and fish are commonplace. There are also representations of
thylacines which are believed to have become extinct on the mainland at least 4,000
years ago and depictions of megafauna including the marsupial lion, Thylacoleo
carnifex (Donaldson 2007, Willing et al. 2009).
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