PROVENANCE
Contemporary Australian Visions, VIC
Art Leven [formerly Cooee Art], Gadigal (Sydney, NSW)
The Wandjina, are exclusive to areas of the Kimberley in Western Australia and are said to exercise power over the rains.
For custodians, such as members of the Djanghara and Karedada families, portable images of the Wandjina are viewed as purely reproductions of the 'real' spirits adorning the cave walls at their most important Dreaming sites.
Wandjina images on bark, board, canvas, slate or paper were first produced for trade and exchange with missionaries travelling by lugger along the Kimberley coastline prior to mid 1970s. However the primary artistic inspiration and purpose in creating these works lay in the artist's responsibility for maintaining the ancestral sites, and repainting them to 'keep them strong'.
