Aboriginal cave art the Wondjina Dreamtime mythology has

Aboriginal cave art

the Wondjina Dreamtime mythology has it that the Wandjina emerged from the clouds, and returned in that same manner. Walaganda, one of the Wondjina, became the Milky Way. In a similar vein, certain tribesmen say the Wandjina have returned to the sky, and can now be seen at night as lights moving high above the earth. With the completion of their earthly tasks, they disappeared into the rocks and sacred water holes in different parts of the country. As they disappeared they left pictures of themselves on the rocks. Each Wandjina wandered until he reached the place where he was to die. Although the paintings are said to represen the bodies of the dead Wandjinas, the spirits of the Wandjinas live on in much the same way as the Aborigines believe the spirits of human beings continue to exist after their death. When they died, they lay down on the soft rocks and left the imprint of their bodies on the surface; these marks are the rock paintings which can be seen today. At the exact spot where they left their ‘shadow’, the Wandjinas descended into the earth; since then, they have lived on at the bottom of the water source associated with each of the paintings. There, they continually produce new ‘child-seeds’, which are regarded as the source of all human life. Aboriginal people, in the Kimberley believed that even after they disappeared, the Wandjina continued to control everything that happens on the land in the sky and sea.