Wandjina Painting

The Wandjina painted here by Rosie Karadada originates in the East Kimberley region where I recently visited my brother and his family.

The artist Rosie is of the Stolen Generation having been removed from her family by rigid Benedictine missionary nuns. She recalls that boys and girls were made to sleep separately away from their parents in segregated dormitories, a deliberate disruption of the family and of parental teaching. Regular visits to cave sites for instruction, family storytelling and food gathering sessions, previously integral to Woonambal socioeconomic education, were all supplanted by compulsory work, adherence to discipline and ‘whitefella Sundays’.

The current situation in Kalumburu is one of Aboriginal control.