Wandjina, Ungud & Wali
The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wanumbul people who live at Mowanjum and up the Gibb River Road to Kalumburru in the Northwest Kimberley of Australia. The Wandjina gave the law and the culture to the people to abide by, these customs are still carried on today. The Ungud helped the Wandjina in creation of the land, creating rivers, lakes, gorges, waterholes & billabongs. The Wali are our food source that our ancestors have hunted for thousands of years.
- Acrylic on canvas, unstretched
- Dimensions: 67 x 67cm
- Cat No. 24-0630
Born in Darwin NT to a European father and a Umida/Ungardun woman from the West Kimberley coast of WA. My mother and I moved from Darwin to Derby/Mowanjum and stayed with families for a while. We then moved to Broome until the age of 6. I returned to Derby where I now reside permanently with my partner, three children and a grandchild.
As a child I was taken out to my grandfather's country (Yaloon/Cone Bay), where my oldest uncle ( Sam Umbagai ) told me dreamtime stories and about country, he always told me the story about Dumbi the Owl. My uncle told us to respect the country and not to harm it or the animals or the spirits of the land will get angry and will punish us, and I learnt it at first hand. " When I was a child I was making humbug and not listening, I fell and hurt myself very badly " and from that day on I always listened. I've just began painting earlier this year (2017), and I like to paint the Jilinya the first bush woman. I was told she is the mother of all people, and there is a place in George Waters area on the coast where her dreaming is at, and I am connected to this place through my mother's grandfather (mother's side) and that is the reason I paint her.
The Mowanjum Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre is a creative hub for the Worrorra, Ngarinyin and Wunumbal tribes, who make up the Mowanjum community outside Derby, Western Australia. These three language groups are united by their belief in the Wandjina as a sacred spiritual force and the creators of the land. They are the custodians of Wandjina law and iconography. The centre hosts exhibitions, workshops and community projects, as well as the annual Mowanjum Festival, one of Australia's longest running indigenous cultural festivals.
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