Gwion Gwion Rock Paintings
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The Gwion Gwion rock paintings, Gwion figures, Kiro Kiro or Kujon (previously known as the Bradshaw rock paintings, Bradshaw rock art, Bradshaw figures and the Bradshaws) are one of the two major regional traditions of
rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...
found in the north-west
Kimberley region of Western Australia The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...
.McNiven, Ian and Russell, Lynette ''Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology''
Rowman Altamira Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...
2005 p. 147
The identity of the artists and the age of the art are contended within
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and amongst Australian rock art researchers. A 2020 study estimates that most of the anthropomorphic figures were created 12,000 years ago, based on analysis of painted-over wasps' nests. These aspects have been debated since the works were seen, and recorded, in 1891 by pastoralist Joseph Bradshaw, after whom they were named until recent decades. As the Kimberley is home to many
traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...
, the rock art is referred to and known by many different names in the local languages, the most common of which are ''Gwion Gwion''Doring, Jeff ''Gwion Gwion: Chemins Secrets Et Sacrés Des Ngarinyin, Aborigènes D'Australie'' (Gwion Gwion: Secret and Sacred Pathways of the Ngarinyin Aboriginal People of Australia), Könemann 2000 p. 55 or Kiro Kiro/''Giro Giro.'' The art consists primarily of human figures ornamented with accessories such as bags,
tassel A tassel is a finishing feature in fabric and clothing decoration. It is a universal ornament that is seen in varying versions in many cultures around the globe. History and use In the Hebrew Bible, the Lord spoke to Moses instructing him to ...
s and headdresses. Since 2009 concerns have been raised that Gwion Gwion art have been damaged, or completely destroyed by fire, as a result of WA government land-management actions.


Gwion Gwion art

Work undertaken by amateur archaeologist Grahame Walsh, who began work there in 1977 and returned to record and locate new sites up until his death in 2007. The results of this work produced a database of 1.5 million rock art images and recordings of 1,500 new rock art sites. He expanded his records by studying
superimposition Superimposition is the placement of one thing over another, typically so that both are still evident. Graphics In graphics, superimposition is the placement of an image or video on top of an already-existing image or video, usually to add to t ...
and style sequences of the paintings to establish a
chronology Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , '' -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. I ...
that demonstrated that ''Gwion Gwion art'' is found early in the Kimberley rock art sequence. He proposed that the art dated to a period prior to the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
. Many of the ancient rock paintings maintain vivid colours because they have been colonised by bacteria and fungi, such as the black fungus, ''
Chaetothyriales The Chaetothyriales are an order of ascomycetous fungi in the class Eurotiomycetes and within the subclass Chaetothyriomycetidae. The order was circumscribed in 1987 by mycologist Margaret Elizabeth Barr-Bigelow. Families and genera , Species F ...
.'' The pigments originally applied may have initiated an ongoing,
symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...
relationship between black fungi and red bacteria. Based on stylistic characteristics, Walsh categorised two individual styles of Gwion paintings, which he named "Tassel" and "Sash" for dominant clothing features. He also identified two variants, which he named "Elegant Action figures" and "Clothes Peg figures". *Tassel figures: identified by their characteristic tassels hanging from their arms and waists, various other accessories can be recognised, such as arm bands, conical headdresses and
boomerangs A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...
. This style is the earliest, most detailed and largest. *Sash: while similar in appearance to the Tassel figures, the Sash body is depicted more robustly and the accoutrements depicted are slightly different: a three-pointed sash or bags attached to the figures' belts begin to be shown. *Elegant Action figures: quite different from the Tassel and Sash figures, these figures are almost always shown running, kneeling or hunting with multi-barbed
spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...
s and boomerangs. These are difficult to place in the style sequence as they are the only figures that are not superimposed over a painting from another period. Also, no other style is superimposed over them and they are the only style that has not been defaced. Stylistically, they are believed to fall between the Sash and Clothes Peg figures. *Clothes Peg figures: were named by Walsh after their resemblance to old wooden clothes pegs, but they are also referred to as ''Straight Part Figures'' by Welch. These figures are depicted in a stationary pose and painted with red pigment. Segments of their bodies are missing, such as their waists, arms and feet, the result of different colour pigments, such as whites and yellows, fading over time. The material culture depicted with these figures includes multi-barbed spears,
spear-thrower A spear-thrower, spear-throwing lever or ''atlatl'' (pronounced or ; Nahuatl ''ahtlatl'' ) is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart or javelin-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to store ene ...
s, and woven bags. This is the most recent style. The anatomical detail common in the earlier styles is missing, and many of the images are shown in aggressive stances. At least one panel shows a battle with opponents arrayed in ranks opposite each other. The distribution and stylistic range of these paintings is quite distinctive, and contrasts with the Wandjina tradition. While more common in some areas, such as the sandstone regions of the west and central Kimberley, isolated examples have also been found in several scattered locations in the east, such as the
Napier Range The Napier Ranges are located in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia. The range is south of and runs parallel to the Wunaamin-Miliwundi Ranges (formerly King Leopold Ranges). The majority of the Kimberley i ...
s, and at the far eastern border of the Kimberley. The art is primarily painted where a suitable
rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...
is found; in contrast with Wandjina art, which has a limited distribution restricted to isolated sites. Unlike Wandjina, Gwion Gwion art is rarely found on ceilings, rather vertical rock surfaces are used, high up in escarpments in shallower rock shelters with small overhangs and with irregular rocky floors not suitable for occupation. The Gwion Gwion paintings predominantly depict human silhouette figures that appear to be suspended in the air or in a dynamic style that suggests running, hunting or dancing. While gender is rarely portrayed in the paintings, limb, arm and shoulder muscles are often well defined in addition to stomach paunches. The question of gender representation in Gwion Gwion art was illuminated recently by the discovery that figures are depicted as if they are facing into the rock face. This perspective has been overlooked until now because of the Western bias toward images that "face out", but also because the "facing in" perspective is more evident in depictions with excellent delineation of body contours, such as the rare Classic Realistic style, which is also earliest in superposition studies. If one appreciates the "facing in" perspective, it becomes evident that the many attributions of "paunches"Walsh G. (2000) are incorrect, both because they can now be seen to be located at the rear of these figures, but also because it is anatomically incorrect to attribute the belly to gluteal structures located more inferiorly.(2000) Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley. Toowong: Takarakka Nowan Kas Publications Furthermore, the figures are ornamented with a diversity of objects such as belts, headdresses, bags and tassels, while other material culture is sometimes depicted, such as
boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...
s and
wand A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which c ...
s. While Bradshaw initially described the colour of the art as having shades of pale blue and yellow, most figures have a deep purple-red hue, mulberry colour or a red to yellow-brown colour. However, Donaldson notes that there are rare examples of multi-coloured figures that retain some yellow and white pigment. The height of the art is variable; most are between in length with some examples up to in height. Artistically, Gwion Gwion are unusually advanced both in technique and style. Image processing has revealed that the outline of the figures are often painted first, then filled in. Engraving in the rock often follows the outlines of figures and may have served as a preliminary sketch which implies planning. Some faces of the figures are painted with anatomically correct features with enough detail to be considered portraits. Due to the fine detail and control found in the images, such as strands of hair painted in thicknesses of , it has been suggested that feather
quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually ...
s may have been used as a technique to apply the paint to the rock walls; an imprint of a feather found at one site may support this possibility. No evidence has yet been found of any corrections or changes in composition during or after painting, while evidence of restoration has been found. In a detailed study of 66 panels, approximately 9% of the images have clearly been vandalized. Some were scratched with stones, some damaged by thrown stones, and some have been broken by hammering with large rocks. With the exception of Elegant Action figures which have been left undamaged for unknown reasons, all Gwion Gwion paintings exhibit possible vandalism, which may indicate ritual mutilation or defacing. Superpositioning of images, another form of vandalism, is common throughout the Kimberley.


Dating

The Gwion Gwion are not the region's earliest paintings. The earlier art consists of crude animal drawings that are believed to be up to 40,000 years old. The Gwion Gwion have nothing in common with this earlier art and first appeared following the peak of the most recent Pleistocene glacial maximum, which is dated between 26,500 and 20,000 years ago. Since the mid-1990s, scientific dating methods have been used to determine the ages of the Gwion Gwion paintings. The methods have included
accelerator mass spectrometry Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a form of mass spectrometry that accelerates ions to extraordinarily high kinetic energies before mass analysis. The special strength of AMS among the mass spectrometric methods is its power to separate a r ...
radiocarbon dating (AMS) and
optically stimulated luminescence In physics, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is a method for measuring doses from ionizing radiation. It is used in at least two applications: * Luminescence dating of ancient materials: mainly geological sediments and sometimes fired pott ...
(OSL). This was used when mud wasp nests have been built over paintings, and it gives a minimum age rather than an actual age of the painting. The results of this have revealed some inconsistency with Walsh's chronology. Experimental OSL dates from a wasp nest overlaying a tassel Gwion Gwion figure has given a Pleistocene date of 17,500±1,800 years BP. The academic community generally accepts 5,000 BP for the end of the artistic style. If the date ranges are correct, this may demonstrate that the Gwion Gwion tradition was produced for many
millennia A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
.
Geoarchaeologist Geoarchaeology is a multi-disciplinary approach which uses the techniques and subject matter of geography, geology, geophysics and other Earth sciences to examine topics which inform archaeological knowledge and thought. Geoarchaeologists study ...
, Alan Watchman posits that the red paint used on a tasselled Gwion Gwion image near the
Drysdale River Drysdale River is a river in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river rises in the Caroline Ranges, flows in a northerly direction and discharges into Napier Broome Bay near Kalumburu, Western Austral ...
is "likely to be only about 3,000 years old." Using the AMS results from accreted paint layers containing carbon associated with another figure, gives a date of 3,880 BP making Gwion Gwion art contemporaneous with, and no older than,
Wanjina The Wandjina, also written Wanjina and Wondjina and also known as Gulingi, are cloud and rain spirits from Australian Aboriginal mythology that are depicted prominently in rock art in Australia. Some of the artwork in the Kimberley region of Wes ...
art. Around 15,000 years ago, the archaeological record shows that Aboriginals in the Kimberleys began using stone points in place of multi-barbed spears, but there is no record of this change of technology in the BGwion Gwion paintings. The most recent paintings still depict the use of multi-barbed spears. In 2008, rock art depicting what is thought to be a ''
Thylacoleo ''Thylacoleo'' ("pouch lion") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene (2 million to 46 thousand years ago). Some of these marsupial lions were the largest mammalian pred ...
'' was discovered on the north-western coast of the Kimberley. This represented only the second example of megafauna depicted by the Indigenous inhabitants of Australia. The image has a "clothes peg" Gwion Gwion superimposed over the thorax, while a "Tassel" Gwion Gwion crosses the forearm of the animal. In 2009, a second image was found that depicts a ''Thylacoleo'' interacting with an "elegant action" Gwion Gwion who is in the act of spearing or fending the animal off with a multibarbed spear. Much smaller and less detailed than the 2008 find, it may depict a
thylacine The thylacine ( , or , also ) (''Thylacinus cynocephalus'') is an extinct carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known live animal was captured in 1930 in Tasman ...
, however, the comparative size and morphology indicates a ''Thylacoleo'' is more likely, a position supported by
palaeontologists Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
and archaeologists who have examined the image. As the ''Thylacoleo'' is believed to have become extinct 45,000–46,000 years ago, this suggests a similar age for the associated Gwion Gwion art. Archaeologist Kim Akerman however believes that the megafauna may have persisted later in wetter areas of the continent as suggested by Wells, and has suggested an age of 15,000 to 22,000 years for the paintings. Recent advances in dating methods may shed light on the age of the paintings and gain a more accurate result.
Neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...
Jack Pettigrew John Douglas "Jack" Pettigrew (2 October 1943''Who's Who in Australia 2013'', Crown Content, 2012. - 7 May 2019) was an Australian neuroscientist. He was Emeritus Professor of Physiology and Director of the Vision, Touch and Hearing Research ...
has proposed dating the art by using
DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...
extracted from colonies of
microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
s which have replaced the
pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...
in some paintings.


Indigenous knowledge

Research undertaken in relation to Aboriginal knowledge has also increased. This has primarily been seen in Aboriginal names being applied to the paintings, reflecting the specific Aboriginal languages used in the areas where they are found. For example, the Ngarinyin name for the art is ''Gwion Gwion''. Other terms include ''giro giro'' used by Aboriginal people in the Napier, Broome Bay and
Prince Regent River The Prince Regent River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise in the Caroline Range near Mount Agnes then flow in a north westerly direction. The river enters and flows through the Prince R ...
. Australian rock art researcher David Welch notes that these words are probably different regional accents of ''Kujon,'' the name of the bird found in the creation story originally heard by Schultz in 1938. Aboriginal people are also more open in telling foreigners stories regarding the images. These stories often relate to spirits who created dances which are still performed today and feature similar apparel found in the paintings, such as headdresses, boomerangs and string. ''Bradshaws (Gwion Gwion)'' are also depicted in contemporary art works produced for sale in the Kimberley; one notable ''Gwion Gwion'' artist is Kevin Waina.


Colonial discovery and study

Rock art in the Kimberley region was first recorded by colonial explorer and future South Australian governor,
George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Go ...
as early as 1838. This rock art is now known as
Wandjina The Wandjina, also written Wanjina and Wondjina and also known as Gulingi, are cloud and rain spirits from Australian Aboriginal mythology that are depicted prominently in rock art in Australia. Some of the artwork in the Kimberley region of W ...
style art. While searching for suitable pastoral land in the then remote
Roe River The Roe River runs from Giant Springs to the Missouri River near Great Falls, Montana, United States. The Roe River is only long at its longest constant point, and had been named as the World's Shortest River by the '' Guinness Book of World ...
area in 1891, pastoralist Joseph Bradshaw documented an unusual type of rock art on a
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
escarpment. Bradshaw recognised that this style of painting was unique when compared to the Wandjina style. In a subsequent address to the Victorian branch of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, he commented on the fine detail, the colours, such as brown, yellow and pale blue, and he compared it aesthetically to that of Ancient Egypt. American archaeologist
Daniel Sutherland Davidson Daniel Sutherland Davidson (July 9, 1900—December 26, 1952) was an American anthropologist who also did important work among the Australian Aborigines in the 1930s. Life Davidson was born in Cohoes in New York in 1900, the son of a travelling s ...
briefly commented on the figures while undertaking a survey of Australian rock art that he would publish in 1936. Davidson noted that Bradshaw's encounter with this art was brief and lacked any Aboriginal interpretations; furthermore, as Bradshaw's sketches of the art were at this time the only visual evidence, Davidson argued that they could be inaccurate and possibly drawn from a
Eurocentric Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world ...
bias. The figures and their existence as an artistic tradition was questioned; articles and books on these works were not published until the 1950s. The rediscovery of the original mural after more than a century has shown that Bradshaw had a remarkable gift for reproduction without photography, and that Davidson's criticisms were unfounded in the absence of the original.Rainsbury, Michael P (2013) Mr Bradshaw's drawings': reassessing Joseph Bradshaw's sketches. Rock Art Research: The Journal of the Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA) 2012 Volume 30 243-253 With the growth of
anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
interest in Peninsula region, research in the coastal area brought with it an awareness of Aboriginal art and culture. However, attention to the Gwion Gwion art was sporadic. Several researchers who encountered the Gwion-type of paintings during expeditions to the region were members of the 1938
Frobenius Institute The Frobenius Institute (Frobenius-Institut; originally: Forschungsinstitut fur Kulturmorphologie) is Germany's oldest anthropological research institute. Founded in 1925, it is named after Leo Frobenius. The institution is located at Gruneburgp ...
expedition. Agnes Schultz noted that unlike with Wandjina art, Aboriginal people showed little interest in the Gwion Gwion paintings, although they recognised them as depictions of bush spirits or ''D'imi.'' When pressed, the expedition's Aboriginal guide explained their creation: Anthropologist Robert Layton notes that researchers such as Ian Crawford, who worked in the region in 1969, and Patricia Vinnicombe, who worked in the region in the 1980s, were both told similar creation stories regarding the Gwion-type art. Since 1980, more systematic work has been done in an effort to identify more Gwion Gwion rock art sites in the Kimberley.


Research

The fossil record of climate and vegetation at the last glacial maximum is sparse, but still clear enough to provide an overview. When the Kimberley region was first occupied circa 40,000 years ago, the region consisted of open tropical forests and
woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...
s. After around 10,000 years of stable climatic conditions, temperatures began cooling and winds became stronger, leading to the beginning of an ice-age. During the glacial maximum, 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, the sea level was some below its present level, with the coastline extending further to the north-west. Australia was connected to
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...
, and the Kimberley was separated from southeast Asia (''
Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lo ...
'') by a
strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...
approximately wide. Rainfall decreased by 40% to 50% depending on region, while the lower levels (half pre-industrial levels) meant that vegetation required twice as much water to
photosynthesize Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in c ...
. The Kimberley region, including the adjacent exposed continental
Sahul Shelf Geologically, the Sahul Shelf () is a part of the continental shelf of the Australian continent, lying off the northwest coast of mainland Australia. Etymology The name "Sahull" or "Sahoel" appeared on 17th century Dutch maps applied to a su ...
, was covered by vast grasslands, while woodlands and semi-arid scrub covered the shelf joining New Guinea to Australia. Southeast of the Kimberley, from the
Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...
to northern
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
the land, including the western and southern margins of the now exposed continental shelves, was covered by extreme deserts and
sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...
. It is believed that no more than 15% of Australia supported trees of any kind. While some tree cover remained in the southeast of Australia, the vegetation of the wetter coastal areas in this region was semi-arid savannah. Tasmania was covered primarily by cold
steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...
and alpine grasslands, with snow pines at lower altitudes. There is evidence that there may have been a significant reduction in Australian Aboriginal populations during this time. It appears there were scattered "refugia" in which the modern vegetation types and human populations were able to survive. With the end of the ice-age, the Kimberley region settled into a
tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...
until a major
El Niño–Southern Oscillation El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics. The warming phase of the sea te ...
event in the mid Holocene caused the Australian summer monsoon rains to weaken or fail for some 1,500 years. The discontinuity in artistic styles between the earlier Gwion Gwion and the current Wandjina has been attributed to the severe drought phase that followed the collapse of the wet season in 5,500 BP. The Gwion Gwion style art ended around this time, possibly within 500 years. The emergence of Wandjina art depicting cloud and rain spirits 3,800 to 4,000 years ago coincides with the end of the "mega-drought" and a return of the rain which gave the region its current climate. The research paper's lead author,
Hamish McGowan Hamish is a Scottish masculine given name. It is the anglicized form of the Vocative#Scottish_Gaelic, vocative case of the Goidelic languages, Gaelic name ''Séamus, Seamus'' or ''Sheumais''. It is therefore, the equivalent of James (given name) ...
, suggests further investigation into the resulting cultural collapse and the possibility that another ethnic group supplanted the Gwion Gwion artists. The chair in Kimberley rock art at the
University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...
Peter Veth criticized the research paper for claiming that simultaneous changes in climate patterns and art styles indicates the collapse of a culture. Veth suggested that a climate change coinciding with the change from Gwion Gwion to Wandjina art is coincidence, pointing out that the
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
of the Kimberley does not show a break in occupation, and that stylistic changes in Aboriginal art have occurred elsewhere in Australia. Additionally, the migration of a new ethnic group into the area is unsupported by the
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
.


Controversies

Research concerning Gwion Gwion art is controversial and little consensus has been reached. Debate has primarily concerned Walsh's interpretations regarding the origins, dating and ethnicity of the Gwion Gwion artists, and his rejection of Aboriginal people as being their descendants. The implications of his interpretations generated considerable criticism beginning in the mid-1990s due to its continuing potential to undermine
native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
claims in the Kimberley. The ongoing disagreements regarding the age of the art and debate about whether it was created by non-Indigenous people makes Gwion Gwion rock art one of Australian archaeology's most contentious topics.


Exotic or local artists

According to Walsh, Gwion Gwion art was associated with a period he called the ''Erudite Epoch'', a time before Aboriginal people populated Australia. He suggested that the art may be the product of an ethnic group who had likely arrived in Australia from
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, only to be displaced by the ancestors of present-day Aboriginal people. Walsh based this interpretation on the sophistication of Gwion Gwion art when compared to other art in the Kimberley region, such as the much later Wandjina styles. Media coverage has at times emphasised his claims of mysterious races. Pettigrew suggests that the Gwion Gwion paintings depict people with 'peppercorn curls' and small stature that characterise San groups; he speculates that African people travelled, shortly after the
Toba eruption The Youngest Toba eruption was a supervolcano eruption that occurred around 74,000 years ago at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the Earth's largest known explosive eruptions. The Toba catastrophe theory ho ...
some 70,000 years ago, by reed boat across the Indian Ocean, provisioning themselves with the fruit of the baobab tree. The Australian archaeological community has generally not accepted such claims and believes that Gwion Gwion are indigenous works. For example, Dr
Andrée Rosenfeld Andrée Jeanne Rosenfeld FAHA (1934-2008) was an archaeologist specialising in rock art. Early life and education Rosenfeld was born in 1934 in Liège, Belgium, the daughter of the physicists Yvonne and Léon Rosenfelds. After the Second Wor ...
argued that the aesthetics of the art did not support claims for a non-Aboriginal origin when comparison is made to the aesthetic value of contemporary Aboriginal art. The
Australian Archaeological Association The Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) is an archaeological organisation in Australia. Membership is open to anyone interested in furthering archaeology in Australia. Sometimes referred to by the nickname ''Triple A'', the association was ...
in a press release stated, "No archaeological evidence exists which suggests that the early colonisation of Australia was by anyone other than the ancestors of contemporary Aboriginal people", the release quoted Claire Smith: "such interpretations are based on and encourage
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
s". Aboriginal people also criticised Grahame Walsh, arguing that he failed to hear their explanations of the significance that the paintings had in their culture. Crawford records being told by an Aboriginal elder in 1969 that the Gwion Gwion were "rubbish paintings", a quote that Walsh would repeat continually in support of his own theory that the art was not of Aboriginal origin. In the local Indigenous English, ''rubbish'' is an adjective usually used to describe someone who is too old or too young to be active in the local culture. Another use is meaning something is ''not dangerous,'' for example, non-venomous snakes are all considered to be ''rubbish'' while in contrast, venomous snakes are all ''cheeky.'' Scholars have generally rejected the idea that Gwion Gwion art was painted by anyone other than Aboriginal people. Statistical analysis undertaken by Michael Barry has concluded that the Gwion Gwion art shares no stylistic attributes with prehistoric
figurative art Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...
overseas. Moreover, Barry argues that stylistically, Gwion Gwion art has more in common with art found elsewhere in Australia, such as figures painted in
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
. Some popular historians and amateur researchers have continued to suggest exotic origins for the Gwion Gwion rock paintings, although these interpretations are considered fringe by reviewers.


Depictions of shamanistic rituals

In many cases, Tassel and Sash figures appear to be involved in either dancing, ecstatic behaviour, or both which, according to a study by Michaelson ''et al.,'' may represent
shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
istic rituals or creation ceremonies.
Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
leaves (which can be used as a
psychoactive drug A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. ...
) are commonly depicted with Tassel and Sash figures that appear to be in motion. Michaelson ''et al.'' cited studies by A. P. Elkin in which he argued that Aboriginal and
Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...
have markedly close similarities. He also noted that the worldwide pattern of shamanism suggests a common heritage that radiated outward from North Africa about 50,000 years ago; it may have originated as a woman's role which over time has been taken over by men. Aboriginal women in Australia have explicitly been recorded as saying that men had taken over roles they once performed in ceremonies. This is supported by many completely different languages having a similar word for women shamans (e.g., udaghan, udagan, utygan), while the term for male shamans is distinct in each language. Michaelson considered it significant that while few women are depicted in Gwion Gwion art, Tassel figures which appear to be leading ceremonies (the oldest art) clearly have breasts, in contrast to later art which depicts males in the leading roles. Pettigrew identifies elements of Gwion Gwion art with symbols used by Sandawe artists to convey their experience with hallucinogens, and others that seem to show hallucinatory elements. From this he infers that psilocybin-induced trances were a feature of both cultures. However, only a small number of researchers believe that shamanism has been part of the culture of Indigenous Australians.
George Chaloupka George Jiří Chaloupka Order of Australia, OAM, Australian Academy of the Humanities, FAHA (6 September 1932 – 18 October 2011) was an expert on Indigenous Australian rock art. He identified and documented thousands of rock art sites, and ...
, an expert on Indigenous Australian rock art, puts it bluntly, "Shamaniacs rule the world at present...It's just another orthodoxy basking in its five minutes of sunshine." Grahame Walsh considered the idea of women shamans in the Gwion Gwion culture "preposterous". Pointing out that women Gwion Gwion images tend to have extremely prominent breasts, Walsh says that the smaller breasts identified by Michaelson are probably chest-band decorations.


Destruction

Aerial fire-bombing and back burning by the Western Australian
Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...
and the
Department of Fire and Emergency Services The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) is a government department that is responsible for fire and emergency services in Western Australia. The department came into being in 2012 as a result of the Perth Hills Bush Fire review.DFES ...
since 2009 as part of the government's fire prevention strategy has caused paint to peel from over 5,000 of the 8,742 known examples of Gwion Gwion art. A survey by archaeologist Lee Scott-Virtue has determined that up to 30 per cent of the rock art had been completely destroyed by fire.


See also

*
Prehistoric art In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of rec ...
*
Indigenous Australian art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving ...
*
List of Stone Age art This is a descriptive list of Stone Age art, the period of prehistory characterised by the widespread use of stone tools. This article contains, by sheer volume of the artwork discovered, a very incomplete list of the works of the painters, sculpt ...


References


External links


TLS review of Lost World of KimberleyKimberley Foundation Australia
Researching, preserving and promoting Kimberley rock art
Bradshaw Foundation
Bradshaw Paintings of the Kimberley, North West Australia

{{Prehistoric technology, state=expanded Rock art in Australia Kimberley (Western Australia) Art of the Upper Paleolithic