This is a traditional coolamon from the N.W.Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Wandjina dates in its mythology with the earliest of the creation ancestors, Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent, of the Aboriginal people of Australia and is the bringer of the monsoon rains and the giver of life. It keeps the spirits of the unborn babies in certain rock pools throughout the `Kimberley. When women bathe and eat fish and turtle from these waterholes they are bound to fall pregnant. The artist is the most senior woman to paint this image and is some of the principal keepers of this Dreaming.