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Wandjina & Ungud (cloud and rain spirits & totem)

The Wandjina is the creator spirit that belongs to us (the Wororra, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people). He is the one that created everything, he also gave us our culture, law and songs and even the dreaming of each child before they are born.

The Ungud Snake story is about two young boys who didn’t listen to their elders or believe in them. There is a big waterhole an in it lies a large Ungud Snake. The old people told the kids not to go near that waterhole, but these boys thought the elders were tricking them so they wanted to find out for themselves. So they went to the waterhole and built a hideout from branches with small holes so that they can see ( just in case the elders told the truth) they looked at the billabong and it was calm. They banged two sticks together to make clapping noise and then they saw all the lilypads starting to move apart on the water and large logs came up from out of the water, then came bubbles and after a huge head coming out of the water to have a look around for who had been making all the noise. He hadn’t seen annone so he went back down and the lilypads went flat and the water went calm. Those two boys ran back to the camp and told the elders that they were right , there was a snake and the elders told them that they should have listened in the first place. The Ungud Snake also was the chosen animal in helping with the creation of mother earth, creating rivers, gorges, stream’s and helped with the formation of the earth. Still today it lives in these dark deep water hole’s in our country which doesn’t want to be disturbed.

 

Name: Gordon Barunga


Language: Worrora


Community: Mowanjum


Biography:

Gordon Barunga was born in Derby in 1961, and grew up at Mowanjum Community, 10kms south of Derby in the West Kimberley of Western Australia. He is the youngest son of well-known and very respected Kimberley leader Albert Barunga [dec] and painter Pudja Barunga [dec].

Gordon has worked at a number of Kimberley stations, including Pantijan, and Christmas Creek, and worked at One Arm Point, before starting to paint.

Gordon’s mother was from the Wunumbul people, and he was very close to her, being the youngest boy. His father passed away when he was young, so Pudja raised him.

His strong connection to his parent’s countries is reflected in his painting. He paints the sites he visited as a child, and the stories he was told as a young boy. He loves to paint Pantijan country, as he lived there for some time, and it was special to his mother.

Gordon remembers the old people painting on boards and bark, and telling the children all of the Wandjina stories. This was very important as the Worrorra had been moved off their traditional lands in the 1950s and located at two separate sites prior to settling at Mowanjum.

Gordon primarily paints with acrylic but also uses ochre. His work is typified by fine brushstrokes, indicating the rain falling as a result of the power of the Wandjina, and is equally sensitive and strong, reflecting the deep beliefs inherited from his family.


© the artist / art centre