Waigin Djanghara Wandjina Paintings
Waigin Djanghara was a senior Wunambal artist who emerged as a significant figure in the bark painting movement of the 1970s and 1980s in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. His work is revered for its spiritual depth, ceremonial precision, and commitment to cultural continuity through the depiction of Wandjina ancestral beings.
This article aims to assist collectors, scholars, and custodians in identifying bark paintings by Waigin Djanghara, with specific attention to stylistic features and known iconography. As with many Aboriginal artists from the region, his paintings are deeply tied to place, Law, and ancestral responsibility.
If you possess a Waigin Djanghara bark painting, or are seeking to understand its Aboriginal artefact value, please contact me. I welcome high-resolution images (front and back) for authentication or appraisal.
Waigin Djanghara Style
Waigin Djanghara painted primarily in the Wandjina style, a sacred visual language passed through generations of Wunambal custodians. His figures are typically depicted with rounded heads and prominent black eyes, the lashes rendered with thick, radiating strokes. Unlike the Wandjina of Charlie Numbulmoore, Djanghara’s eyes are smaller and more refined, contributing to a sense of solemn intensity.
The faces are characteristically white, while the bodies—particularly below the armpits—are covered in dense dotting motifs, which represent rainfall and spiritual energy. These ceremonial dot patterns echo traditional body painting used during initiation and rainmaking ceremonies.
Many of his compositions feature a single Wandjina figure, or occasionally two stacked vertically. Totemic animals, such as turtles, snakes, and dugongs, appear as secondary elements in some works, as do shields—a visual reference to protection and spiritual identity. A recurring motif is a snake draped above the Wandjina’s head, symbolising fertility, water, and ancestral presence.
Waigin Djanghara’s bark paintings were typically created using natural earth pigments—ochres collected from the landscape and charcoal for black detailing. His early works are often delicate due to the absence of fixatives, making them rare and highly desirable among collectors.
Notably, full-body depictions of Wandjina are far less common in his oeuvre than head-and-shoulder compositions, and are considered more significant due to their rarity and scale. His barks are often icon-like or square in format, carefully composed and spiritually resonant.
He has also painted barks with a dugongs shield and turtle.
Biography of Waigin Djanghara
Born around 1925, Waigin Djanghara began painting commercially in his late 50s, after a lifetime of ceremonial and custodial obligations. He emerged as a key contributor to the Warringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre in Kununurraduring the 1980s, where he collaborated with fellow senior artists to share ancestral imagery with the broader world.
Together with his wife, Ignatia Djanghara, he later moved to Kalumburu, near the Benedictine Mission on the northern Kimberley coast. There, the couple were entrusted with the restoration and maintenance of Wandjina rock art sites, upholding their duties as cultural custodians of the Wunambal people.
Their work involved repainting ancestral figures in rock shelters—a sacred responsibility that informed and legitimised their bark painting practice. For Djanghara and his peers, creating Wandjina imagery on bark, slate, or canvas was not a commercial act alone—it was a means to “keep them strong,” maintaining the spiritual vitality of these ancestral beings.
Waigin taught his wife to paint, and the two worked alongside notable artistic pairs such as Louis and Rosie Karedada, and Jack and Lily Karedada, marking a period of intense creative exchange and intergenerational teaching.
While details of his early life remain scarce, it is highly likely that Waigin Djanghara began his painting journey through traditional rock art, and later translated this knowledge into portable media. His works from this era are increasingly rare and represent an authentic bridge between ancient tradition and contemporary Aboriginal art practice.
The date of Waigin Djanghara’s passing is unknown, but his contribution endures. Today, his paintings continue to circulate in important collections, and his legacy lives on through the visual language he helped sustain.
If you have a painting by Waigin Djanghara or further information about his life and work, please contact me. Every contribution helps preserve the story of this important Wunambal artist.
All images in this article are for educational purposes only.
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