19th Century colonial administrators believed the Aboriginal race was doomed to extinction, with the few mixed race descendents being assimilated into the white population. Traveling around North Western Australia one can see just how wrong this belief was. Aboriginal people are very much a part of the country and the culture, and despite problems with health and alcohol, there are many success stories, including Aboriginal art, which is now internationally in demand. Apart from the big ticket items, like Emily Kngwarreye, there are numerous local galleries producing high quality works that offer an affordable indigenous memento of one's travel. We visited two of these, and came away delighted with our purchases (seen below), and happy to support local artists. First was the Warmun Gallery near the Bungle Bungles, where the artists draw heavily on that iconic landscape:
Next was the Mowanjum Gallery, a short distance outside Derby. Having been disappointed at not being able to see any of the mysterious Wandjina rock art of the region, we were happy to find the local artists have embraced this and related images as their dominant theme:
The traditional forms are not so easy to hang on your wall ,but fascinating to see in the field, with their sense of antiquity and history. The following examples are from, (1) Keep River, (2) Keep River, (3) Bungle Bungles and (4) Tunnel Creek, respectively:
