"Wanalirri" the Rainmaker
2012
- Medium
- natural ochre and pigment on etched bark
- Measurements
- (68.0 × 40.0 cm)
- Place/s of Execution
- Kalumburu, Western Australia
- Department
- First Nations Australia
- Credit Line
- Purchased with funds donated by the Linda Herd and the Canny Quine Foundation, 2024
© Mercy Paymurrmurra Fredericks/Waringarri Arts - Gallery location
- Gallery 2
Ground Level, NGV Australia - About this work
-
Mercy Fredericks began painting and engraving barks in 2009 and quickly gained recognition for her distinct Wandjina barks and fine textured ochre paintings. Wanalirri (the Wandjina) are ancestral spirits who created Country, people and animals in northwest Kimberley before turning themselves into rock paintings. They are sometimes called ‘lightning men’ or ‘rainmakers’, and every year they replenish waterholes, creeks and rivers during the wet season. For Fredericks, the use of a red pigment in these two works represents blood for the tili (heart) to show that the Wandjina are partly alive.