Aboriginal Rock Painting March 2

In a pouring rain this morning we went to the part of Kakadu National Park where many rock paintings are located.  We first took a vigorous walk up to a very large sheltered area under the overhang of a mammoth rock:

 This is a place where the Aboriginal people who lived here sheltered during the rainy season, and indeed it was quite dry.  There is a very old painting of a kangaroo here:

The rock paintings often have many layers of artwork, as the creative process was more important than the finished product, and many of the sites have many layers of art, making the dating of them very difficult.  They range in age from hundreds of years to tens of thousands of years with not much change in the art or the materials.  Some of the paintings have been explained to westerners, but some have not as they have secret and sacred meanings.  The ones we saw were all on sheltered rock faces but none were in caves.  The materials were different colors of ochre, mostly red, yellow and white.  We walked along the side of the escarpment from one rock face to another on a very nicely done system of paths and boardwalks designed to give a good view of the art but to protect the entire area.  Here are some samples.  First a spirit-person:

A very old painting of a spear thrower using a hide launcher with a far more recent painting of a kangaroo:

 This next painting was identified on the sign accompanying it as relating to dancing.  Our guide, who is white but has fluency in three of the Aboriginal languages and has been adopted by one, told us that was hogwash.  The woman anthropologist who first saw this said to the Aboriginal people accompanying her that it looked like dancing to her.  They very much wanted to please her, or they didn’t want to share the real meaning, so they agreed it was dancing.  Our guide said it has to do with sorcery, something like voodoo, but in respecting the confidentiality of the people he wouldn’t say more.  He said he’s been trying to get the government to take down the dancing sign for years, but the woman anthropologist is prominent and he cannot get it done.  So this is either dancing, or more likely, sorcery:

Here’s a very old (tens of thousands of years) picture which includes a woman giving birth:

 This one is really interesting!  It’s Nabulwinjbulwinj, “a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam”.   Posted without comment!

Finally, Lightning Man, or Namarrgon, part of the Dreaming and the creation myth.  These are very complicated stories:

 Just as we finished visiting the rock art the rain stopped!  Steamy and humid air settled down, and we walked back to our bus.  We stopped for lunch and then drove the three+ hours back to Darwin.