Alien or sky being? Photo: Robyn Jay
As for the role of Wandjinas in the Aboriginal creation story, the “sky-beings” or “spirits from the clouds,” are believed to have descended from the Milky Way during Dreamtime to shape the Earth and its inhabitants. Realizing the magnitude of the task, they returned home to bring more Wandjinas. Assisted by the Dreamtime snake, they descended again, spending their Dreamtime as creators, teachers, and deities to the Aboriginal people they had crafted. Eventually, the Wandjinas vanished, descending into the earth and residing at the base of the water source linked to each painting. There, they perpetually generate new ‘child-seeds,’ considered the origin of all human life. Some of the Wandjina also returned to the sky and can now be observed as celestial lights moving high above the earth at night.
Now, could those celestial lights be alien spacecrafts and the Wandjina their owners? Numerous other logical questions arise, such as why the Wandjinas were depicted with white skin when the Aboriginal people had black skin. Then, there is the disproportionate size of the eyes in relation to the face and nose, and, of course, the consistent absence of a mouth in the depictions that we have already touched upon.