William Sandy

This painting shows the spirits of ngankaris coming together to commune with the Creator, Wanambi, the Rainbow Serpent.

The spirits of the ngangkaris leave their physical bodies and fly at night to meet up with Wanambi. As spirits they have feathers like an eagle-hawk and can fly through space unseen.

When they come to the waterhole, the abode of the Wanambi, they shed the feathers and are now spirit men. They commune with the creator, the all-powerful Rainbow Serpent. His visual aspect is the rainbow spanning the sky reaching up to the sky­world. Only the medicine-men are able to converse with Wanambi. In William’s painting we can discern the visions emanating from the spirit of Wanambi and the ngangkaris receiving their occult powers from him.