Aboriginal Art and Stories also tell the Law
The small white figure on the right is Namarrgon, Lightning Man. He is one of the spiritual ancestors and came from the north coast, with his wife and children, looking for a good place to settle. He now lives at Lightning Dreaming, nearby. The lightning is his children but they also have the form of a bright orange and blue grasshopper (the Splendid or Leichhardt Grasshopper) that comes into the country looking for him. He also looks for them and if he doesn't find them he rages with storms until he does. The Circle around him is his lightning and he has axes on his head, elbows and knees which cause the thunder. Seeing the grasshoppers signals to Aboriginal people that it is time to find shelter. The large figure on the left is Namarndjolg who broke the incest laws on the rock ledge above the gallery and who later became Ginga, the great saltwater crocodile.
Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name... ... read more 
