From Bradshaw to Wandjina

Bradshaw and Wandjina paintings are two outstanding styles of Aboriginal art found amongst rock shelters of the Kimberley region of north Western Australia.

Bradshaw paintings, known to local Aborigines as djimi, giro giro (kiera kiro or girri girri), guyon (kuyon), gwion gwion, and other names, are believed to be the work of mythical ancestors and spirits, and include a range of exquisite and ancient dark red human figures. For outsiders, their elegance, extravagant cer~monial costumes, and floating appearance conjure up notions of a mysterious forgotten race.

In contrast, Wandjina paintings are generally brightly coloured with red and yellow headdresses, white faces, and black eyes. They represent mythical ancestors who usher in each wet season's rainclouds and are responsible for the life-giving rain. Hundreds of them are scattered across the Kimberley, peering out from their rock shelters.

From Bradshaw to Wandjina traces the evolution of Kimberley Aboriginal rock art styles from the ancient Bradshaw Figures to the more recent Wandjina deities, and unravels the mysteries of the art.

I SBN 9 78-0987 13899-6

9 780987 138996 Distribution of Bradshaw and Wandjina Paintings in the Kimberley, Western Australia [] Distribution of Bradshaw Paintings F ~ Distribution of Wandjina Paintings

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·"Hobart FROM BRADSHA w TO wANDJINA ABORIGINAL PAINTINGS OF THE KIMBERLEY REGION, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

David M. Welch

Published by David M. Welch

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CULTURE SERIES NO. 12 From Bradshaw to Wandjina: Aboriginal Paintings of the Kimberley Region, Western Australia

Australian Aboriginal Culture Series No. 12

Copyright© David M. Welch 2016 1his book is copyright. Apart from any fur dealing for the purposes of private srudy, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher.

Published by David M. Welch _P. 0. Box 503, Coolalinga, 1orthern Territory 0839, Australia. Fax. (61 ) (8) 8983 11 45 www.aboriginalculture.com.au

arional Library of Australia Caraloguing-in-Publicarion entry: Creator: Welch, David M. (Maxwell), 1955- author

Tide: From Bradshaw to Wandjina: Aboriginal Paintings of the Kimberley Region, Western Australia

ISB : 978-0-987 1389-9-6

Series: Australian Aboriginal Culture Series; o. 12 Subjects: Rock paintings - Western Australia - Kimberley Region - History. Painting, Aboriginal Australian - Western Australia - Kimberley Region - History. Arrisrs, Aboriginal Australian - Western Australia - Kimberley Region. Rock paintings in arr. Kimberley Region (WA.)

Dewey umber: 709.0113

Designed and typeset by Bruce Welch in 12pt Adobe Garamond Pro.

Printed on 105 gsm Sun mart artpaper, section sewn.

Printed by Everbest Printing, China.

Photographs, maps and drawings by David M. Welch unless indicated otherwise.

Cover photograph: Bent Knee Figures wearing long headdresses, strings and feather bunches. car.;ing boomerangs and feather bunches, Roe River Valley. Wandjina paintings from Kandalngari- == Kimberley.

Title page photograph: Aboriginal custodian Reggie Taraya ar Pandagurnya, central ~"'."' (Photograph by Michael Rainsbury.)

Back cover photograph: A Wandjina face painted with whire clay, yellow ochre and pigmenrs. CONTENTS Foreword 2 The chronological sequence ofKimberley rock art 3 Bradshaw Paintings of north Western Australia 4 Tasselled Figures 24 Bent Knee Figures 32 Kimberley Dynamic Figures 40 Straight Part Figures 44 The Painted Hand Period 52 Wandjina paintings 56 Totemic (Dreaming) sites 78 Acknowledgements 88 Books and journal articles by David M. Welch 90 Further reading 92 Index 94

Low rocks containing shelters with paintings, beside the lower Mitchell River, norrhern Kimberley. FROM BRADSHAW TO WANDJINA

THE FOREWORD he study of Australia's rock shelter I have regularly explored remote areas T paintings reveals that many changes and visited Aboriginal communities have taken place throughout the 50,000- across Australia, discovering new rock art year history of Aboriginal occupation. sires and seeking a deeper understanding The Kimberley region of north Western of Aboriginal culture. Australia, in particular, holds a significant Following extensive field work record of how early Australians lived, in rhe Kimberley, exploring bushland EARLY P thought and celebrated their beliefs. and examining 700 rock art sites, I Ancient paintings surviving in rock formulated a chronological sequence 3. B. shelters reveal a progression of ceremonial for the rock paintings of that region in costumes and customs from former rimes 1992. By consulting with Aboriginal to the present. Religious beliefs evolve people, researching archival photographs when images of Rainbow Serpents, Ytim and movies housed in our museums and Men and Plant People flourish mid-way state libraries, and attending Aboriginal through the rock art sequence, later ceremonies, I was able to march the dominated by the enigmatic Wandjina ceremonial dress and body positions of beings (pronounced won-jean-a) with rhe Bradshaw Figures with the regalia and their bright white faces peering out from postures used in traditional Aboriginal 5.STR rock shelters across the region dance. The academic papers I produced Bradshaw Figures - early Kimberley aimed to illustrate these correlations human figures - have been described and provide an understanding of the as being too refined and too ornate to · Bradshaw paintings. have been painted by Aboriginal people. We are fortunate that great Such views reflect a lack of knowledge masterpieces from early Australian of traditional Aboriginal ceremonies and artists have survived the elemen rs and capabilities, a consequence of much of the the ravages of rime. From Bradshaw to ceremonial regalia and paraphernalia being Wandjina: Aboriginal Paintings ofthe secret-sacred within Aboriginal culture, and Kimberley Region, Western Australia hidden from the outside world. illustrates the art and demonstrates its As a medical practitioner in Darwin significance as part of Australia's rich in the orthern Territory since 1979, cultural heritage. I have had opportunities to work with Aboriginal people and learn about their Dr. David M. Welch culture. Separate from my medical work, Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia, 2016

2 THE CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF KIMBERLEY ROCK ART (Based on the 1992 chronology proposed by Dr David M. Welch)

1. ARCHAIC PERIOD 2. TASSELLED FIGURE PERIOD

3. BENT KNEE FIGURE PERIOD 4. KIMBERLEY DYNAMIC FIGURE PERIOD

RUNNING AND SEATED FIGURES

5. STRAIGHT PART FIGURE PERIOD 6. PAINTED HAND PERIOD

PARALLEL LINE FIGURES

PRE-WANDJINA FIGURES

7. WANDJINA PERIOD 8. CONTACT PERIOD

OTHER MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES

3 FROM BRADSHAW TO WANDJINA

BRADSHAW PAINTINGS OF NORTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Vim.be~ley rock early 1990s, northern paintings were .l"'-.pamnngs are described as being created by Kiera kiro, dominated by two broad a mythical bird that rubbed its wing or . types: The more recent elbow on the rocks to make it bleed, and Wandjina paintings, then used the blood to paint the pictures. characterised by large (The term kiera kiro is a variant of giro human-like figures, giro . This is also spoken as girri girri with colourfully painted with a trill on the rr.) bold reds, whites and yellows, and the In the central Kimberley, the author early Bradshaw paintings, characterised by a was told by garinyin elders that a range of smaller human figures surviving in mythical bird, Guyon, rubbed its beak reddish, brownish and purplish pigments. on the rocks to make it bleed, and then Wandjina paintings are regarded used the blood to paint the red pictures. by local Aboriginal people as self-images, In 2000 a new narrative emerged from

originally painted by the legendary a group of Ngarinyin men living to The par Wandjina when they arrived at their rock the west, describing the early paintings shelters. Wandjina are revered as rain as gwion gwion (a variation of guyon, adomr arms,; gods or rain spirits who are responsible for also recorded as kuyon), the children connec producing each wet season's riins. Without of Djilinya (a mythical female), who a profi Wandjina there would be no rain. painted images of themselves. most F Bradshaw paintings are regarded Bradshaw Paintings, the European from t by local Aboriginal people as the works term for these early figures, has arisen Indeed might of mythical spirits and ancestors. in memory of Joseph Bradshaw, who walls o Folklore varies across the region. In was the first white man to bring their seemec the north, one version of events is that existence to the attention of the outside of som the small red figures are the works of world. Bradshaw, a pastoralist-explorer, smalle1 djimi, bush spirits who painted images stumbled upon them while travelling of anir of themselves. Another northern legend overland on horseback in 1891, and porcu1 ( is that the old red paintings are self described his findings thus: ~ portraits of giro giro, tiny people who Some of the hwnan figures were life-size, made lived in the area in the past. When the the bodies and limbs very attenuated, and by Cl author made inquiries in the 1980s and represented as having nwnerous tassel-shaped in 19.