Ask MOA: What Is It? is your opportunity to ask MOA Curators and Collections staff about an artwork or other mystery object at home that you’ve always wondered about. We select certain inquiries and objects to feature online.

This featured Ask MOA case is about a Wandjina figure from an estate sale.

Question from inquirer:

“This is a third item that came as part of an auction lot from the estate sale of Horologist Raymond Saunders (who passed away this past November). I lived in Australia for a number of years and was quite haunted when I saw this 45 x 13 cm wood Wandjina figure. I don’t think it’s a tourist piece and don’t want to keep a cultural belonging that should be back in its home–but have no idea where to start if I’m to repatriate it (I’m guessing it comes from the Kimberly region based on a bit of googling). It has what look like possible signatures on the back–the one that is clearest appears to say Alec.”

Answer from Mitiana Arbon:

This seems to be a bark/wood painting depicting what is generally referred to as “Wandjina”. These are a group of ancestral beings from the sky and sea and associated with lands and natural elements specific to several indigenous communities from the northern areas of the Kimberley region. Their depiction vary depending on the particular clan and the specific wandjina.

It is hard to say what the function or this is for as it became very popular for the *Kalumburu mission in the Kimberly from the 1960s onwards.

It is hard to make out the name, but they seem to think it says Alec. I did a little digging and it seems that Alec Mingelamanganu, sometimes stylized as Alex, was a prolific producer of these styles of park paintings until 1975.

*Kalumburu is the most remote permanent settlement in Western Australia and is located on the King Edward River, 550 kilometres from Kununurra in the south east and 650 kilometres from Derby in the south west. Formerly a Catholic mission, the community now has approximately 470 residents. For many thousands of years, this area has been home to two distinct Aboriginal language groups, the Kwini (Kuini) and Kulari.