The Gabarnmung Rock Shelter

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

The Gabarnmung Rock Shelter, owned by the Jawoyn tribe of Australia’s Northern Territory, is covered with Aboriginal art paintings dating back 35,500 years. Only 26 non-indigenous visitors have ever been invited into this sacred space, a naturally formed temple nestled into a sandstone formation.

A small group of Oprah Show Ultimate Viewers took a trip to Arnhem Land and were allowed a rare look inside. Watch the video. Watch

In spring 2010, Margaret Katherine, a Jawoyn tribal elder and traditional owner of the land on which the Gabarnmung rock shelter rests, took the extraordinary step of inviting a team of the world's top archaeologists and rock art experts to explore the cave and its paintings along with a trusted documentary crew filming Spirits in the Stone.

This side view of Gabarnmung shows where the main archaeological dig is taking place. The ceiling of this gallery is covered with thousands of paintings and the massive overhang is supported by slender sandstone pillars.
Kangaroo painting inside the Gabarnmung Cave

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

The paintings vary from depictions of large kangaroos, snakes, lizards and turtles that are central to the Jawoyn's traditional daily life, while other paintings are of spiritual communion and document mythology and sacred rituals.

This kangaroo painting is considered an "X-ray"-style-painting because the artist has painted the inner organs of the animal. Like most of Garbarnmung, many paintings superimpose one another.
Jawoyn country

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Jawoyn country features winding rivers that swell with the coming of the monsoon season.
Rock art expert Robert Gunn

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Rock art expert Robert Gunn explains the details of the spine of a large Barramundi painting on the ceiling of the shelter. The ripples in the ceiling are from the ocean washing against the sandstone 1,700,000 years ago.
Margaret Katherine

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Margaret Katherine is the traditional owner of the Gabarnmung site and a respected elder of the Jawoyn tribe. Margaret holds a piece of petrified wood left behind by her ancestors.
Margaret Katherine

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Margaret Katherine surveys the paintings her ancestors created on the ceiling of the Gabarnmung rock shelter.
Painting inside the Gabarnmung Cave

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

This painting shows a woman wearing a traditional headdress. The image could be thousands of years old.
Geomorphologist Jean-Jacques Delannoy

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Filmmakers shoot expert geomorphologist Jean-Jacques Delannoy, from the University of Savoie in France, as he explains the formation of Gabarnmung.
Children from the Jawoyn community

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Children from the Jawoyn community of Barunga gather around cinematographer Chayse Irvin during a shoot.
Women from the Jawoyn community

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Dance and song are two of the ways in which the Jawoyn tribe have saved their oral history. Cinematographer Chayse Irvin films dancers in the Beswick Community, outside of Katherine, Northern Territory.
White cockatoos

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

White cockatoos take flight from the tops of trees surrounding Gabarnmung. White cockatoos are important animals to the Jawoyn tribe as they are known for their ability to warn people of impending danger.
The night sky over Arnhem Land Plateau

Photo: Adrian Buitenhuis, Emma Masters and Peter Carty

Hundreds of thousands of stars shine brightly in the skies over the remote Arnhem Land Plateau.

Get an exclusive look at Sprits in the Stone, a documentary about the Gabarnmung Rock Shelter.

More from Australia's Northern Territory 
Published 01/20/2011