작품 상세

This bark painting is created by Ignatia Djanghara. Little if anything is known about Ignatia’s childhood and youth. She was born around 1930 and was already in her mid 50s when she first became prominent at Kalumburu in the mid 1980s where she lived adjacent to the Benedictine mission (Est.1907). Both here and at Mowanjum (the site of a former Presbyterian mission), local authorities had exercised strong control over the Woonambal landowners who were taught that their tribal customs and beliefs were at odds with Christianity. Ignatia and her husband were responsible for maintaining the remnants of these spirit ancestors which are said to have lain down in caves and turned into paintings on the cave walls after their time on the earth. Images of the Wandjina were viewed by artists such as Ignatia as purely reproductions of the ‘real’ Wandjina’s adorning the cave walls at their most important Dreaming sites.