On Manganawarl and Kuwindjil country in what will become known as Arnhem Land’s Wellington Ranges, people are making the earliest known stencils of whole birds.
At a special rock art site called Djulirri, the largest art site within Manganawarl and Kuwindjil country, you can see the bird painting on the shelter ceiling.
The animal is held in place and a mixture of red ochre and water is placed into the mouth and blown over it, leaving a negative print of the animal.
In the same shelter there’s an image that resembles a thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) which will become extinct on the mainland almost 2,000 years before colonisation.
Manganawarl and Kuwindjil people have been adding new paintings of their life and landscape here for thousands of years, painting over old images as space runs out.
Groups of families camp at Djulirri shelter during the wet season and move onto the coast during the dry season.
People move around to where it’s resourceful, so their diets change depending on the time of the year.