"The Arrawaddi Wandjinas protect the area around Bell Creek. They live behind the waterfall at Bell Creek Gorge.
The Dunbi Owls are very sacred. They can communicate directly with the Wandjinas. If the owls see anything bad in their country they fly off and tell the Wandjina what is happening. Wandjinas can bring floods, cyclones, dry weather and good rainy season.
Each Wandjina has a different pattern for the family group or dambin they stand for. Sometimes men and women will make body scars using cuts and hot ash to copy the Wandjina's markings.
The brown and white dots represent heavy rain drops. The green dots represent wet season growth. The brown background represents the red earth of my homelands."
Petrina Bedford.
The Jalala (Djalala) are markers from the Dreamtime. They are marking stones that divide Petrina's land from other people’s land. Ngarinyin country is to the east and Bunuba country to the south, and Unggumi country to the west. People have to stick to their boundaries.
The Jalala stones are also a reminder to a person that they are approaching a sacred site or taboo area. These stones are sometimes placed near paintings of Wandjnas, the great Creator Ancestors whose painted images on the rock shelters of the West Kimberley are found at hundreds of spiritually important sites.
