WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

12). This is the same Wanjina, Namarali, that was repainted by Donny Woolagoodja,
the senior Worrorra custodian of the place in 2002 (Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005).
Elkin (1930, 261), Shultz (1956, 19) and Lommel and Lommel (1959, 33) all
recorded the re-touching or repainting of Wanjina images. During fieldwork between
1962–1966, Crawford (1968) also observed a range of Aboriginal artists painting and
re-painting sites. In the 1970s the filmmakers Michael Edols and Malcolm Douglas, in
collaboration with Traditional Owners, recorded the repainting of Wanjinas (see
Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005, Chapter 8).
The 'paintings' are not the only physical manifestation of Wanjina. The Wanjina-
Wunggurr people report that the Wanjina have made their mark across the country, by
carving out rivers, pushing up mountains and transforming themselves into boulders
and other features in the land and sea. Wanjinas defeated in battle at a place called
Langgi transformed themselves into unusual pillars of stone (Blundell et al. 2009).
Sometimes they leave their image on boab trees or even disguise themselves as a boab
tree (Redmond 2001, 233). The Wanjina are also seen as the cumulo-nimbus clouds,
especially during the wet (Crawford 1968, 28).
The Gwion Gwion (also known as Gyorn Gyorn, Giro Giro, Kuyon, Kiera-Kirow –
Norval and Shiel 1999; Welch 2007) painted images are also a meaningful component
of the Wanjina-Wunggurr socio-religious belief system. Wanjina-Wunggurr people
locate the Gwion Gwion paintings (also commonly referred to as Bradshaw paintings)
in the 'everywhen' of Lalai (the Dreaming) and say that a small Lalai bird painted its
image in rock shelters with its beak (Vinnicombe and Mowarjarlai 1995b; Ngarjno et
al. 2000; Blundell et al. 2009).
There is no other Indigenous society in northern or central Australia, indeed anywhere
in Australia, where a single class of Creator Being, depicted as a distinct rock art
figure, has such a significant and multifaceted role or set of associated meanings and
practices (Blundell et al. 2009, 66). Each member of the Wanjina-Wunggurr society
traces their descent to the Wanjina ancestral beings. Wanjina rock art sites serve as
geographical focal points for a system of territorial and social organisation that links
small groups of people (the clans of anthropological discourse) to named local
countries (clan estates) (Blundell et al. 2009, 56) and into a system of exchange called
the wurnan that extends throughout the Kimberley. The exchange of items between
local group members is viewed as the passage of items in space from Wanjina to
Wanjina.
The rock art makes visible the religious narratives of the Wanjina-Wunggurr people.
The painted images are a powerful component of what Blundell, Doohan and
Bornman (2009) describe as the Wanjina-Wunggurr 'culture-scape'. Together, the
Wanjina and the Wunggurr Snake are believed to be the manifestations of a life force,
also called Wunggurr, which permeates the Wanjina-Wunggurr cosmos and is imbued
in all living forms (Blundell et al. 2009, 60). The paintings both evoke and provide
visible evidence of the events of Lalai that have resulted in the creation of land, sea
and sky; they connect people to their conception sites and in ritual; and they reinforce
the reciprocal relationships that exist amongst members of the Wanjina-Wunggurr
society. Plant and animal species are maintained through their ritual repainting in
local countries symbolising the inter-dependence of these local country groups and
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