Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Indigenous Art
Rock Art
Some Aboriginal rock paintings are believed to date back between 18,000 and 60,000 years
and provide a record of changing environments and lifestyles over the millennia. For the
local Indigenous people, rock-art sites are a major source of traditional knowledge - their
historical arch-ives in place of a written form.
The earliest hand or grass prints were followed by a naturalistic style, with large outlines
of people or animals filled in with colour. Then came the dynamic style, in which motion
was often depicted (a dotted line, for example, to show a spear's path through the air). In
this era the first mythological beings appeared, with human bodies and animal heads. Fol-
lowing this were simple human silhouettes, and then the more recent x-ray style, displaying
the internal organs and bones of animals.
WHERE TO SEE ROCK ART
»
Mulkas Cave, near Wave Rock and Hyden
»
Around Esperance with Kepa Kurl ( 08-9072 1688;
www.kepakurl.com.au
; Museum Village)
»
The Wandjina and Gwion Gwion images of the Kimberley
»
Mitchell Falls in the Kimberley
»
Mt Elizabeth Station on the Gibb River Road
Art of the Kimberley
The art of the Kimberley is perhaps best known for its images of the Wandjina, a group of
ancestral beings who came from the sky and sea and were associated with fertility. They
controlled the elements and were responsible for the formation of the country's natural fea-
tures.
Wandjina images are found painted on rock as well as on more recent contemporary me-
dia; some of the rock images are more than 7m long. They generally appear in human form,
with large black eyes, a nose but no mouth, a halo around the head (representative of both
hair and clouds) and a black oval shape on the chest.
