The 'Wandjina' of the aborigines: ancient deities from the pleiades
The paintings have received all sorts of interpretations: from the representation of stylized humans, or even owls, up to the Ancient Astronaut Theorists, according to whom the Wandjina were ancient non-terrestrial travelers who descended to Earth in the mists of time.
In 1938, Dr. Andreas Lommel, a member of the Frobenius Institute, coexisted for several months in the northwestern part of Australia, in the Kimberly region, with an Aboriginal tribe calledthe Unambal, a culture that has existed for at least 60 thousand years. During this period, Lommel noted and photographed the daily lives of these hunter-gatherers stuck in the Stone Age.
What most caught the researcher's attention was the discovery of a cave considered sacred by the aborigines, in which the enigmatic Wandjina were represented, cave paintings of mythological beings connected with the creation of the world.
Kimberly is the only place in the world where these strange beings are represented. According to the researchers, these are very ancient creations, at least as old as the Aboriginal culture that created them.
The Unambal tradition requires that the members of the tribe repaint the images periodically, in order to guarantee the continuity of the tradition and not lose its memory. For these men this is something very important.
The paintings have received all sorts of interpretations: from the representation of stylized humans, or even owls, up to the Ancient Astronaut Theorists, according to which the Wandjina were ancient non-terrestrial travelers who descended to Earth in the mists of time.
Many believe that extraterrestrials had a direct role in the creation of the world and Aboriginal legends tell of truly extraordinary events.
Despite the antiquity of the Unambal, traditional law and culture are still active and alive. The Worora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul are the three tribes who venerate the Wandjina and consider themselves the custodians of the oldest rock paintings in all of Australia.
What seems to be most interesting is the style used by the Aboriginal people to depict these enigmatic divine beings: white faces, no mouth, large black eyes and a head surrounded by a halo, or some type of helmet.
It is natural that when looking at the Kimberley pictograms one immediately notices the extraordinary resemblance to the stereotypical image of an extraterrestrial, a 'grey' to be precise.
Precisely for this reason, many people wonder why the Aboriginal people painted the Wandjina in this way: why do they have white skin if the artist wanted to represent another Aboriginal person with black skin? Why are the eyes always painted disproportionately compared to the face and nose? And why are all these beings mouthless?
Wandjina pictograms use common colors: black, red, yellow on a white background. They appear alone or in groups, vertically or horizontally depending on the size of the rock, and can be represented with figures and objects, such as the Rainbow Serpent.
Around the heads of the Wandjina are lines or blocks of colour, depicting lightning, clouds or rain. The Wandjina can punish those who violate the law with floods, lightning and cyclones. Aboriginal people still believe that images possess these powers, and therefore must be approached and treated with respect.
The mythology of the Unambal
The images of the Wandjina are very surprising, but what is truly fascinating is the oral tradition that has been passed from generation to generation. As reported on the Bradshaw Foundation website, Aboriginal people see the Earth as the great serpent Ungut.
The Milky Way is seen as another serpent, called Wallanganda. These two serpents brought creation to life, dreaming of all creatures living on Earth, including the spiritual ancestors of the Aborigines and the Wandjina themselves.
«These creatures are considered beings of the sky or spirits of the clouds who descended from the Milky Way during the Dream Time, to teach men the laws, precepts and rules of behavior», explains Ivana Malpede, a researcher who spent ten years in Oceania, in an interview given to Alfredo Lissoni.
According to tradition, the Wandjina were able to change shape at will: now they could be a Wandjina, now a human being, now an animal. When these mysterious visitors left the planet, they split into two groups: one group hid in the bowels of the Earth; the other group, however, returned to the sky.
The aborigines, worthy of the most advanced alien conspiracy theory, claim that, even after their passing, the Wandjina continue to control everything that happens on Earth, in the sky and in the sea.
These are truly ancient traditions that put us in direct contact with our remote past. Their ancestors arrived in the region probably 60 thousand years ago, although the dating remains uncertain.
The discovery of some ancient objects in the region suggests that the area was inhabited as early as 174,000 years ago, which conflicts with the commonly held theory that Aboriginal people immigrated from Africa around 60,000 years ago. Some anthropologists have even hypothesized that Homo Sapiens may have originated in Australia.
«Aborigines claim to have been on Earth for thousands and thousands of years. And this is true, even though it clashes with official archaeology", continues Malpede. «The oldest civilized depiction of Australian Aborigines dates back to 30 thousand years ago, and shows a female figure. This is a clue that forces us to long backdate the birth of culture on the oceanic continent."
Today, the Worora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul tribes still venerate the Wandjina and only a few individuals are allowed to renew the paintings. Listening to their traditions leaves you fascinated and with an unanswered question: what did our ancient ancestors really see?
As many myths and legends of the past have proven true, thanks to the discovery of precious archaeological finds (such as the city of Troy, the labyrinth of the Minotaur, the navigation crystals of the Vikings), the Wandjina pictograms could be the historical testimony of a humanity's contacts with non-terrestrial intelligences?
As the Cargo Cult Theory hypothesizes, couldn't it be that the Aboriginal people of that ancient time were unable to understand the events they saw, interpreting them as supernatural?
Perhaps, one day we will discover the answers to these intriguing questions.
