Rock Art and Continuity in South Central Kimberley Region of Western Australia

The northwest part of the Kimberley region in western Australia contains examples of some of the best known rock art in the world including the Wandjina and Gwoin Gwoin (formerly known as Bradshaw) art stules, some of which is suggested to date back to the Pleistocene period. Wandjina and other representations of spiritual beings also occur in the limestone of south central Kimberley, which has not been so well recorded. Amongst these, there is a body of dry black pigment art, which is probably drawn using charcoal and a body of dry black pigment art, which is probably drawn using charcoal and a body of incised art made by scratching weathered limestone or a previously painted surface to revealthe underlying stone. These methods of executing art are not found in all painted caves and shelters but are common within this broad region. They are likely to have been produced in the contact / historical period. Professor Balme and O'Connor's paper links this to the history of aboriginal European contact in the area from the late 19th century when many aboriginal people lived and worked on pastoral stations maintaining their links to traditional lifeways when they left the pastoral stations in the wet season.