women's past, present, future

📍Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park in Kimberley, Australia

I have recently visited the Carnarvon gorge in Australia, where the Bidjara and Karingbal people sculpted hundreds of vulvas on the rock.

Below is the little piece of interpretive information that was available on site:

A woman’s story

Women are responsible for looking after some of the stories etched along this section of the sandstone wall—women’s business.

You will see engraved over and over again the motif of the human vulva. Our Elders tell the story of this design being a fertility symbol.

For #WorldSerpentDay: Manasa, the Hindu snake goddess, trio of late 19th/early 20th c. Indian images:

1. Manasa, The Snake Goddess c. 1890, Kalighat watercolor, graphite, ink, and tin on paper Cleveland Museum of Art

2. "Manasa, goddess presiding over snakes." c.1895, Calcutta (Kolkata) color lithograph/popular print British Museum

Ornament in the Form of a Coiled Snake Chinese late 11th–10th century BCE

Unknown Craftsmen

Kangaroo, c.1845

Adnyamathanha People Shield, c.1930

Emu, c.1930

Art Gallery of South Australia

What I connect with…

Yaritji Young (1956) APY Lands South Australia

Tjala Tjukurpa I-IV (2025)

Tjala Tjukurpa (2026)

And one cool thing is, because this is a living tradition you can see it just about everywhere in Australia, not only at ancient sacred sites or in museums.

Image 1: Ancient rock art from Arnhem Land

Image 2: Modern artwork by students of the Certificate III in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts (nationally accreddited qualification CUA30520) at TAFE NSW Eora.

Mother And Child

7th July 1956: A mother holding her baby girl at the reserve where they live in Siwundula, Rhodesia

Ningura Napurrula (c.1938 – 2013) was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert, whose work was internationally acclaimed. Her works included a site-specific commission for the ceiling of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, as well as appearing on an Australian postage stamp.