Cave Art
Bruno David has published a book on cave art. Deep underground, hidden from view, some of humanity’s earliest artistic endeavors have lain buried for thousands of years. Read the full review by Meg Conkey, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley
Published by Thames & Hudson World of Art
Photographs From The Frontier Kimberley 1910-1911
Taken by the first Swedish scientific expedition to Australia
From prints held by the National Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm.
Organised and annotated by Kim Akerman
Published by Hesperian Press 2017
Wanjina: Notes on Some Iconic Ancestral Beings of the Northern Kimberley
Kim Akerman has written an essay crystallising his thoughts relating to Wanjinas that have accumulated over the past forty years. The Kimberley Foundation Australia congratulates Kim for his scholarship. Read the review by Nicolas Rothwell in The Australian.
Wanjinas are cosmological Beings represented in the rock art of the central and northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Evidence suggests that Wanjina rock paintings were made at least as far back as 4000 years ago and continue to be made and renewed today.
Images of Wanjina Beings are usually characterised by halo-like headdresses and mouthless faces with large round eyes, fringed with eyelashes, set either side of an ovate nose. Most Wanjina images found as rock art are depicted without a mouth, although on some more recent works on bark, boards, or canvas the mouth and teeth are indicated.
This essay provides details on the appearance, nature and powers of Wanjina. It also presents information on their mythology. A series of appendices is included with a range of ethnographic, mythic and related information.
Kim Akerman acknowledges the debt he owes in the writing of this essay and the opportunities he has had to work with and alongside Mowanjum Worrorra Elders of the 1960s and in the 1970s and 1980s the Ngarinyin and Wunambal senior men and women.
Stockists:
VIC NGV Store – Federation Square
NSW Abbeys Bookshop – 131 York Street, Sydney
WA Serendipity Books West Leederville, State Library Bookshop, Boffin’s Bookshop, Lane Bookshop Claremont – Perth; Short Street Gallery – Broome
TAS Artmob and the Hobart Bookshop
Direct with Hesperian Press
Kimberley Rock Art
Australia has some of the best and oldest rock art in the world, but much of it is difficult to access in rugged wilderness terrain.
Now some of this art is available to all in a series of high quality books that are proudly printed in Australia. A three-volume series on the prolific rock art of the Kimberley has been published by Mike Donaldson, a geologist and bushwalker who has been documenting rock art sites for more than 30 years.
The Kimberley Rock Art 3-Volume set is available online at Wildrocks Publications.
A Companion to Rock Art
A Companion to Rock Art offers an unparalleled overview of a field that has evolved significantly within the last two decades. A range of interpretive frameworks within which petroglyph and pictograph art forms can be understood is examined in detail. This exciting field of enquiry continues to engage both researchers and the general public, with the search for elusive meanings in the images. Whether they were produced for the exchange of information; for secular or sacred purposes, for signalling alliance networks and identity; or as legacies of origin narratives are just some of the challenging questions that confront the modern archaeologist. This Companion is an authoritative guide for researchers, instructors, and students in anthropology, archaeology, religious studies and prehistoric art.
Edited by Jo McDonald and Peter Veth. Published by Wiley-Blackwell
Kimberley History: People, Exploration and Development
Western Australia’s Kimberley region embraces one of the world’s last great wilderness areas. The region has a fascinating indigenous and early European history. Archaeological evidence indicates that Aboriginal occupation of the Kimberley began between 53,000 and 60,000 years ago. Known European exploration of the Kimberley coastline commenced in 1644 and land based exploration in 1837.
Containing 15 papers by different authors, this lavish illustrated book is the proceedings of the Kimberley Society Kimberley History Seminar held at the University of Western Australia in 2010.
Kimberley History: People, Exploration and Development is available online at the Kimberley Society.