Raft Point Rock Art
Andy, Simon and Mark were heading back from Freshwater Cove to Derby and needed fuel for the boat. There was suppose to be a gas drum stored near Raft Point for such situations. It was not to be found but Mark took Andy and Simon to nearby Raft Point to view the Wandjina figures rock at high above the water.
Raft Point
Upon reaching the Kimberley approximately 50,000 years ago, the earliest Aboriginal explorers started decorating the sandstone walls with exquisite rock art. Some of the paintings show human forms hunting or dancing, while others depict sailors and ships.
The land of the Wunambal Gaambera people, which unfurls over 6.17 million acres (2.5 million hectares) in the north Kimberley, is home to tranquil Swift Bay, or Warrabii West. “Two sites at Swift Bay are close together but depict totally different styles,” says Silversea guest lecturer Tim Harvey. “One site contains mostly Gwion figures. The other, more recent site, has large Wandjina figures on the ceiling, as well as numerous fish, ducks, turtles and crocodiles.”
According to Harvey, this location is the perfect place to compare the two principal Kimberley rock art styles, which are Wandjina and Gwion (also called Bradshaw) art. The large, wide-eyed Wandjinas are spirit figures drawn on thousands of cliffs and cave walls in the Kimberley. They came to both national and international prominence when they featured in the Sydney Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Although Aboriginal people have known about these sites for thousands of years, George Grey is credited with the earliest European recording of Wandjina rock art, made during his expedition of 1838. The unique Gwion art was first seen by Western eyes in 1891 by pastoralist Joseph Bradshaw.
Over millennia, the Aboriginal Australians had developed a complex belief system. Central to this belief is the concept of the “Dreamtime,” which is broadly understood as the time when spiritual ancestors created the world and everything that exists.
Wandjina figures are very much part of the Dreamtime stories, explains Harvey, one of which is that people did not paint these figures. It’s believed that Wandjinas put themselves on the rock after they had finished creating the landscapes to remind people of their power.
Gwion art tends to depict dynamic, stick-like figures with stylistic accouterments such as sashes and headdresses, says Harvey. “The figures display action, whereas, by comparison, many of the Wandjinas appear static.”
Researchers who study Aboriginal rock art face a significant challenge— definitively dating these pieces. From 2013 until 2016, Dr. June Ross from the University of New England, Dr. Kira Westaway from Macquarie University, together with her colleagues and Aboriginal community members, analyzed art in over 200 sites in the northwest Kimberley.
In their study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, the researchers explain how they used a technique known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to date wasp nests overlying the artworks. The method measures the period since grains of sand, which are found within mud wasp nests, were last exposed to sunlight. By learning when the nests were constructed, researchers can use the resulting age to confidently claim that the artist painted the image before the mud wasp created its nest. OSL results confirmed that the art was indeed ancient, providing evidence that art has a minimum age estimate of more than 16,000 years.
For many Aboriginal traditional owners, however, pinpointing the exact date of when the work was created is not of the utmost importance. “It is the images that are important,” states Harvey. “So, while many Aboriginal people want to protect the images and work with academics to document them when they were painted is not considered a priority.”
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