Yorro Yorro: Aboriginal Creation and the Renewal of Nature

by David Mowaljarlai and Jutta Malnic

Book Overview

In a remarkable collaboration, Aboriginal elder David Mowaljarlai and photographer Jutta Malnic rekindle a story that reaches back 60,000 years, constituting the oldest memory of humankind. Illustrated with more than 120 colour plates, Yorro Yorro tells of the Wandjina creation spirits of the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892814608
• ISBN13: 9780892814602
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Magabala Books
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.6" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Wandjina art - aboriginal culture

This book gives an absorbing view of the life and culture of some of the Aboriginal peoples of northern Western Australia. It describes a journey, physical and spiritual, of collaboration between a senior elder and law man of the ngarinyin people and a white Australian photographer. Photographs by Jutta Malnic show the vast country of the Kimberley and the magnificent rock art sites. These pictures are complemented by elegant black and white photographs taken 50 years earlier of the young David Mowaljarlai growing up in his country. The text is clearly written and contains some amusing accounts of bush travel as well as the story of David Mowaljarlai's life and quite complex accounts of the ngarinyin view of the world. The Kimberley region contains some of the most magnificent rock art in the world and for a visitor some of the most memorable images are of the wandjina figures. These are human-like figures with large eyes and a halo-like appearance around their head. It is an intensely powerful experience to see a huge rock gallery of these figures. For the ngarinyin, they are powerful religious images connected with the rain-bearing monsoon clouds and must be approached with great respect. This book gives a privileged view of a world in which land, people and culture are intimately linked. If you are interested in Aboriginal art and culture, this is an important work.