WAC174/24 – Peter Thomas

– 80 x 80 cm

The Juwari is the Devil Spirit.

He is the power, force and spirit of creation iitself, and everything within it and within us  He is the creation of country and the land, of the weather & seasons, of all the elements. He is the source of all forms of life and of death.

The Gija people present Rover Thomas’s dreamtime story, through performing the Joonba- A traditional dance and song ceremony called Gurrir Gurrir. Rover was given this dreamtime by the Juwari

This Gija story as told by senior Gija elder Patrick Mung and Cultural leader Jane Yalunga (Rover Thomas’s only daughter).

The story shares ‘there were three Juwari, from Wyndham side, from Gija country and down that way. Each one had a Joonba, it different each way. Them Juwari been fighting  who is the strongest  and who will bring them joonba to the Old man.

The Gija Juwari won and that was the start of the beginning, the birth of the corroboree and the Joonba- Gurrir Gurrir, as it is today’