Aboriginal Rock Art, Kakadu, Northern Territory

During our trip to the Northern Territory in May, we visited Kakadu National Park.  There is a lot to love about Kakadu, including the many examples of Aboriginal rock art that are open to the public to view.  We visited Kakadu with an AAT Kings tour group so that we were taken to the relevant places, and had a guide to explain what we were visiting.

On day 1, we visited the Nourlangie rock art gallery, which includes the Anbangbang rock art gallery.

First up is a man using a woomera to spear a kangaroo:

Here is a wallaby, I think:

This is a closeup of the man spearing the kangaroo, with the woomera clearly visible:

This looks to me like another kangaroo:

I am not entirely sure what is going on here, but it looks like a hunting scene to me:

One of the most distinct paintings is of this nasty individual, Nabulwinjbulwinj, a spirit who kills females to eat by hitting them with a yam:

This is Namarrgon, the lightning man (top right) and his wife, Barrginj (just under the large central figure).  Their children are Aljurr or Leichhardts grasshoppers, which appear when the first storms break: 

Lightning Man broke the incest laws with his sister, so he was turned into a saltwater crocodile, Ginga, which is the big figure at the top centre.  The miscellaneous people at bottom right are off to a ceremony, and there are fish on the bottom right.

Leichhardts grasshoppers are brightly coloured orange and blue insects. I liked the Lightning Man story so much that I bought this bookmark painted by an Aboriginal artist, featuring a Leichhardts grasshopper painted in the traditional Aboriginal art colours of black, white, red and yellow:

The next day, we visited the Ubirr rock art gallery.

First up is a rather gruesome moral tale whereby the hunter, Maybuyu, had his fish catch stolen.  Maybuyu punished the thieves by rolling a rock in front of the cave where they were hiding out so that they could never leave:

Moving right along in a different spot, there is an illustrated "menu" of food caught nearby, mostly featuring fish but with a wallaby and certain other creatures included:

Here is some more food from the menu:

There is also evidence at Ubirr that Tasmanian tigers once roamed the Top End, as there is a Tassie tiger painted in one of the galleries at Ubirr (see centre bottom):

In another galley at Ubirr, there is featured this hunting scene:

This is part two of the hunting scene - see the turtle next to the fish:

Here are some more fish in this gallery:

There is also evidence of contact by the local Aborigines with white man, as a gun is depicted in this painting:

On the same day, we did a cruise down the East Alligator River up to Arnhem Land.  There was also Aboriginal rock art along the river banks:

It really is fascinating to see this art work laid down so long ago by the First People, and to learn some of their stories and what they ate through the art.