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Wanalirri

Wanalirri (Wandjina) with Kira Kiro (Bradshaw) figures, Lu (Snake). The Wandjina are ancestral spirits who created country, people and animals in the North West Kimberley before turning themselves into rock paintings. They are sometimes called “lightning man” or “rain maker” and every year they replenish water holes, creeks and rivers through making the wet season. The Wandjina can be vengeful if people break the law, by making savage storms and cyclones. The predominant white colouring and shape of the Wandjina’s body represent water and clouds which are sometimes offset by the use of a red pigment, used to paint the Tili (heart), representing blood that shows us that the Wandjina are partly alive.