Ancient Aboriginal rock paintings - Kakadu Australia
How's it going steemers?
I would like to share some photos of the ancient aboriginal art that we saw at Nourlangie Rock kakadu in the Northern Territory in Australia.
This is a very sacred site for the Aboriginals and this is where the rainbow serpent dream time story was first told. Along with many other traditional dream time stories.
This area is the Warramal clan land and the settlers re named it to Nourlangie Rock.
The upper area of the rock outcrop has always been called "Burrunggui" pronounced Boo - ring - goy. The lower area is called "Anbangbang" pronounced Arn - barng - barng.
This was a great place to stay for the locals as it has great shelter and plenty of animals to hunt.
Especially in the wet season as there is lots of spots to escape the rain.
Truth be told we visited this place on new years day and my God what a hangover we were all sporting haha. But that didn't deter us from the heat and to check out this amazing place.
None the less we jumped in the car and headed out to Nourlangie Rock.
We packed a shit load of water and slapped on some sun screen and we were good to go.
The base of the walk which will lead you past some amazing rock paintings is about 3.4km return. Which will take around two hours to take it all in.
But you can also trek around the entire rock
which is quite a mission and is about 12km return
We decided on the shorter art site walk as the hangover was in full effect.
It wasn't long until we came across the first of many ancient art on the walls.
As we hiked up into the rock we entered the home to shelter.
Aboriginal people have been coming here to this shelter for about 20,000 years.
The cool breeze and deep shade would have been such a relief after the heat of the low lands.
This was a place they would cook food and hang out.
As I looked around I saw an interesting shape carved out of the rock.
It looked like steps??
Not too sure what's going on here.
Further down the track we came across some more recent rock art. This gallery is relatively recent compared to other painting is kakadu.
It was probably painted in the past 1,000 years.
Sometimes the subject of the art can provide clues to its age.
For example, firearms have only been painted since aboriginal people first had contact with Europeans.
The next deep shaded area must have been the place all the clans came together to party.
Burrungkuy is an area where family and all the clans come together to share stories, their knowledge and teaching the younger generation how to hunt, how to paint and how to find bush tucker.
This was a meeting spot for all the clans to come together and share their knowledge, songs and all dance together. This place would have been pretty lit back in the day.
Next up is the lighting man.
Now kakadu has an extremely high rate of lightning strikes and this is where the lightning man story begun, as depicted in this rock painting.
Aboriginal people have provided information about this art and it goes like this.
Namarrkon the lightning man.
Barginj is Namarrkon wife.
She and Namarrkon are the parents to Alyurr, also known as the Leichhardt’s grasshoppers which appear as the first storm breaks.
These grasshoppers are only found here in Kakadu and have beautiful colouring.
Namarndolg and his sister broke the kinship avoidance laws on the rock ledge above this gallery. Naughty naughty
He later became the King (saltwater crocodile) and she became a Rainbow Serpent.
In Aboriginal culture the kinship law determines how clans and family relationships are organised.
These laws extend to members of the same family and to community members with the same cultural responsibilitys and relationships.
This painting also depicts family groups of men and women on their way to a ceremony.
Flecks on the breasts of the two women on the right indicates that they are breast feeding children.
Also the Saratoga fish is a popular food fished from the waters near by.
So let's get into the lightning man a little more as I find this story fascinating.
Spiritual ancestors created the landscape, its wildlife, aboriginal people and their way of life.
As stories of these ancestors are retold, important information about traditional laws are handed down through the generations. For example the spectacular lightning storms, which occur here every year are a reminder Namarrkon, the lightning man's story.
Namarrkon now lives at lightning dreaming, which you can see from the lookout.
Leichhardt’s grasshoppers
These grasshoppers are lightning man's children and are only found around these parts early storm season.
We spent hours looking through the bush trying to find on but not luck.
All we found was the remnants of destroyed bushes that had been eaten by these guys.
After the rock art we headed up the hill to view the mountain.
There is a single rock on the edge of the cliff. This boulder is the feather which Namanjolg's sister took from his headdress after they had broken the incest law.
She placed it here to show others what they had done. The rock of shame I guess you could call it. Later she became the rainbow serpent. But that's a whole other story.
The view of the rock formation here is magnificent!
We chilled out here for awhile then made our way back to the car.
Not a bad way at all to spend a hung over new years day that's for sure!
Stay tuned for more blogs about our Northern Territory adventure!
Happy travels!
