The Gwion Gwion rock paintings, Gwion figures, Kiro Kiro or Kujon (also known as the Bradshaw rock paintings, Bradshaw rock art, Bradshaw figures and the Bradshaws) are one of the two major regional traditions of rock art found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia.McNiven, Ian and Russell, Lynette Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology Rowman Altamira 2005 p. 147 Key traditional owners have published their own account of the meaning of the images. However the identity of the artists and the age of the art are contested within archaeology and amongst Australian rock art researchers. A 2020 study estimates that most of the anthropomorphic figures were created 12,000 years ago, based on analysis of painted-over wasps' nests. These aspects have been debated since the works were seen, and recorded, in 1891 by pastoralist Joseph Bradshaw, after whom they were named until recent decades.Davidson, Daniel Sutherland Aboriginal Australian and Tasmanian Rock Carvings and Paintings Hesperian Press (American Philosophical Society) 2011 pp. 132–133. As the Kimberley is home to many traditional owners, the rock art is referred to and known by many different names in the local languages, the most common of which are Gwion GwionDoring, Jeff Gwion Gwion: Chemins Secrets Et Sacrés Des Ngarinyin, Aborigènes D'Australie (Gwion Gwion: Secret and Sacred Pathways of the Ngarinyin Aboriginal People of Australia), Könemann 2000 p. 55 or Kiro Kiro/Giro Giro. The art consists primarily of human figures ornamented with accessories such as bags, tassels and headdresses.
Gwion Gwion art Amateur archaeologist Grahame Walsh began work there in 1977 and returned to record and locate new sites up until his death in 2007. The results of this work produced a database of 1.5 million rock art images and recordings of 1,500 new rock art sites. He expanded his records by studying superimposition and style sequences of the paintings to establish a chronology that demonstrated that Gwion Gwion art is found early in the Kimberley rock art sequence. He proposed that the art dated to a period prior to the Pleistocene. Many of the ancient rock paintings maintain vivid colours because they have been colonised by bacteria and fungi, such as the black fungus, Chaetothyriales. The pigments originally applied may have initiated an ongoing, symbiotic relationship between black fungi and red bacteria.
Based on stylistic characteristics, Walsh categorised two individual styles of Gwion paintings, which he named "Tassel" and "Sash" for dominant clothing features. He also identified two variants, which he named "Elegant Action figures" and "Clothes Peg figures".
Tassel figures: identified by their characteristic tassels hanging from their arms and waists, various other accessories can be recognised, such as arm bands, conical headdresses and boomerangs. This style is the earliest, most detailed and largest. Sash: while similar in appearance to the Tassel figures, the Sash body is depicted more robustly and the accoutrements depicted are slightly different: a three-pointed sash or bags attached to the figures' belts begin to be shown. Elegant Action figures: quite different from the Tassel and Sash figures, these figures are almost always shown running, kneeling or hunting with multi-barbed spears and boomerangs. These are difficult to place in the style sequence as they are the only figures that are not superimposed over a painting from another period. Also, no other style is superimposed over them and they are the only style that has not been defaced. Stylistically, they are believed to fall between the Sash and Clothes Peg figures. Clothes Peg figures: were named by Walsh after their resemblance to old wooden clothes pegs, but they are also referred to as Straight Part Figures by Welch. These figures are depicted in a stationary pose and painted with red pigment. Segments of their bodies are missing, such as their waists, arms and feet, the result of different colour pigments, such as whites and yellows, fading over time. The material culture depicted with these figures includes multi-barbed spears, spear-throwers, and woven bags. This is the most recent style. The anatomical detail common in the earlier styles is missing, and many of the images are shown in aggressive stances. At least one panel shows a battle with opponents arrayed in ranks opposite each other.
The distribution and stylistic range of these paintings is quite distinctive, and contrasts with the Wandjina tradition. While more common in some areas, such as the sandstone regions of the west and central Kimberley, isolated examples have also been found in several scattered locations in the east, such as the Napier Ranges, and at the far eastern border of the Kimberley. The art is primarily painted where a suitable rock shelter is found; in contrast with Wandjina art, which has a limited distribution restricted to isolated sites. Unlike Wandjina, Gwion Gwion art is rarely found on ceilings, rather vertical rock surfaces are used, high up in escarpments in shallower rock shelters with small overhangs and with irregular rocky floors not suitable for occupation.
The Gwion Gwion paintings predominantly depict human silhouette figures that appear to be suspended in the air or in a dynamic style that suggests running, hunting or dancing. While gender is rarely portrayed in the paintings, limb, arm and shoulder muscles are often well defined in addition to stomach paunches. The question of gender representation in Gwion Gwion art was illuminated recently by the discovery that figures are depicted as if they are facing into the rock face. This perspective has been overlooked until now because of the Western bias toward images that "face out", but also because the "facing in" perspective is more evident in depictions with excellent delineation of body contours, such as the rare Classic Realistic style, which is also earliest in superposition studies. If one appreciates the "facing in" perspective, it becomes evident that the many attributions of "paunches"Walsh G. (2000) are incorrect, both because they can now be seen to be located at the rear of these figures, but also because it is anatomically incorrect to attribute the belly to gluteal structures located more inferiorly.(2000) Bradshaw Art of the Kimberley. Toowong: Takarakka Nowan Kas Publications Furthermore, the figures are ornamented with a diversity of objects such as belts, headdresses, bags and tassels, while other material culture is sometimes depicted, such as boomerangs and wands. While Bradshaw initially described the colour of the art as having shades of pale blue and yellow, most figures have a deep purple-red hue, mulberry colour or a red to yellow-brown colour. However, Donaldson notes that there are rare examples of multi-coloured figures that retain some yellow and white pigment. The height of the art is variable; most are between in length with some examples up to in height.
Artistically, Gwion Gwion are unusually advanced both in technique and style. Image processing has revealed that the outline of the figures are often painted first, then filled in. Engraving in the rock often follows the outlines of figures and may have served as a preliminary sketch which implies planning. Some faces of the figures are painted with anatomically correct features with enough detail to be considered portraits. Due to the fine detail and control found in the images, such as strands of hair painted in thicknesses of , it has been suggested that feather quills may have been used as a technique to apply the paint to the rock walls; an imprint of a feather found at one site may support this possibility. No evidence has yet been found of any corrections or changes in composition during or after painting, while evidence of restoration has been found. In a detailed study of 66 panels, approximately 9% of the images have clearly been vandalized. Some were scratched with stones, some damaged by thrown stones, and some have been broken by hammering with large rocks.
With the exception of Elegant Action figures which have been left undamaged for unknown reasons, all Gwion Gwion paintings exhibit possible vandalism, which may indicate ritual mutilation or defacing. Superpositioning of images, another form of vandalism, is common throughout the Kimberley.
Dating The Gwion Gwion are not the region's earliest paintings. The earlier art consists of crude animal drawings that are believed to be up to 40,000 years old. The Gwion Gwion have nothing in common with this earlier art and first appeared following the peak of the most recent Pleistocene glacial maximum, which is dated between 26,500 and 20,000 years ago.
Since the mid-1990s, scientific dating methods have been used to determine the ages of the Gwion Gwion paintings. The methods have included accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating (AMS) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). This was used when mud wasp nests have been built over paintings, and it gives a minimum age rather than an actual age of the painting. The results of this have revealed some inconsistency with Walsh's chronology. Experimental OSL dates from a wasp nest overlaying a tassel Gwion Gwion figure has given a Pleistocene date of 17,500±1,800 years BP. The academic community generally accepts 5,000 BP for the end of the artistic style. If the date ranges are correct, this may demonstrate that the Gwion Gwion tradition was produced for many millennia. Geoarchaeologist, Alan Watchman posits that the red paint used on a tasselled Gwion Gwion image near the Drysdale River is "likely to be only about 3,000 years old."Watchman 1997: 42 Using the AMS results from accreted paint layers containing carbon associated with another figure, gives a date of 3,880 BP1997:44; cf. Michaelson 2000 making Gwion Gwion art contemporaneous with, and no older than, Wanjina art. Around 15,000 years ago, the archaeological record shows that Aboriginals in the Kimberleys began using stone points in place of multi-barbed spears, but there is no record of this change of technology in the Gwion Gwion paintings. The most recent paintings still depict the use of multi-barbed spears.
In 2008, rock art depicting what is thought to be a Thylacoleo was discovered on the north-western coast of the Kimberley. This represented only the second example of megafauna depicted by the Indigenous inhabitants of Australia. The image has a "clothes peg" Gwion Gwion superimposed over the thorax, while a "Tassel" Gwion Gwion crosses the forearm of the animal. In 2009, a second image was found that depicts a Thylacoleo interacting with an "elegant action" Gwion Gwion who is in the act of spearing or fending the animal off with a multibarbed spear. Much smaller and less detailed than the 2008 find, it may depict a thylacine, however, the comparative size and morphology indicates a Thylacoleo is more likely, a position supported by palaeontologists and archaeologists who have examined the image. As the Thylacoleo is believed to have become extinct 45,000–46,000 years ago,Roberts et al. 2001Gillespie 2004 this suggests a similar age for the associated Gwion Gwion art. Archaeologist Kim Akerman however believes that the megafauna may have persisted later in wetter areas of the continent as suggested by Wells,1985: 228 and has suggested an age of 15,000 to 22,000 years for the paintings.
Recent advances in dating methods may shed light on the age of the paintings and gain a more accurate result. Neuroscientist Jack Pettigrew has proposed dating the art by using DNA sequencing extracted from colonies of microorganisms which have replaced the pigment in some paintings.
Indigenous knowledge