Rock Art

With its ample water diverse flora including edible plants and abundant wildlife this area has long been home to indigenous Australians.   It is probable that many of their tools and manufactures were made of wood or woven and did not survive for long in this climate but in some places rock art has survived for at least 2,000 years.  Aboriginal rock art can be found all around Australia but traditional lifestyle has been maintained in the Northern Territory for longer than anywhere else and the art retains its original significance; recording important events and handing down knowledge to the young; in addition to ritual.

In Kakadu some of this art has been made accessible to tourists.

The text says that: "in Northern Australia where art continues as part of the traditional lifestyle the young artist learns his clan designs from his close male relatives".

Men are the artists and keep the clan secrets.  

But some art is instructive; passing on local knowledge and rules for living:

Some is ancient and some quite recent.  It is quite usual to overwrite previous images; using the rock like a blackboard.