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Wali (green sea turtle)
This painting is of the Wali, which we hunt and eat. I love painting this turtle because it makes me think of my mum’s country on the coast where they always hunted and ate. I’ve always painted this turtle’s eggs as well which are also good eating.
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Wandjina & Unguds (cloud and rain spirits & totems)
The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people who live at Mowanjum and up the Gibb River Road to Kalumburru in the North West Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Wandjina gave the Law, Culture and Language to the people to abide by. These customs are carried on today. The Unguds represent the dreaming of the people which the Wandjina has given. The Ungud is given before birth to the parents, grandparents aunts or uncles of a child, through dreams, or it may come as a living animal.This is considered as a gift from the Wandjina to the parent, the animal becomes a gift to the unborn child which the child belongs to. Now when the child dies it goes back to being that animal. Today each and every individual has their own animal that belongs to them.
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Wandjina with Two Owls and Ungud
The wandjina, dumbi and ungud are all from the dreaming.
If anything happens to the owls, the wandjina sends out the snakes to bring the rains.
Dumbi are very precious to the wandjina.
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Wandjina, Jaiya and Ungud and longneck turtle (cloud and rain spirits, fish & totem)
Where you see a lot of Wandjinas they represent the laws of trees, rivers, rocks, bush fruit, animals and all of creation. They give the law on how we have to treat and use them. These customs are carried on today. The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people who live at Mowanjum and up the Gibb River Road to Kalumburru in the North West Kimberley region of Western Australia. Wandjina is the one who gave us Jaiya animals that are our food source that our ancestors have hunted for thousands of years. The Ungud snake is the one that made the rivers and holds water. If they are disturbed then they will kill whoever disturbs them.
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Wandjina, Dumbi & Ungud (cloud and rain spirit, barn owl & totem)
The Wandjina is the creator spirit that belongs to the Wororra, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people. He is the one who created everything, gave us our culture, law and songs and even the dreaming of each child before they are born. The Dumbis belong to the Wandjina and nobody can make fun or kill them, because the Wandjina will send a big rainstorm just like in the flood story. The Ungud snake is the one that made the rivers and holds water. If they are disturbed then they will kill whoever disturbs them.
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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.
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ILAA Painting
The children (ilaa) in Mowanjum Community love to paint and come to the art centre every day after school to sit with the established artists, their families to learn their stories and culture and how to translate these into beautiful artworks.
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Wandjina & Unguds (cloud and rain spirits & totems)
The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people who live at Mowanjum and up the Gibb River Road to Kalumburru in the North West Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Wandjina gave the Law, Culture and Language to the people to abide by. These customs are carried on today. The Unguds represent the dreaming of the people which the Wandjina has given. The Ungud is given before birth to the parents, grandparents aunts or uncles of a child, through dreams, or it may come as a living animal.This is considered as a gift from the Wandjina to the parent, the animal becomes a gift to the unborn child which the child belongs to. Now when the child dies it goes back to being that animal. Today each and every individual has their own animal that belongs to them.
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Ngudu Ngudu (ibis bird)
This story is about ibis birds that we call Ngudu Ngudu. These birds represent a Junba that we call Jadmi which we perform doing our cultural dance.