Jemma Unghango / Gwion Gwion Rock Art

Gemma has spent her whole life at Kalumburu, growing up at the mission and later working in its gardens, kitchen and bakery. A priest there encouraged her to paint, and she has worked steadily since the mid 1990s, first selling through the Kalumburu Museum and also contributing pieces to the local church.

Her best-known subject is Gwion Gwion, the slender ancestral figures seen in rock shelters across the north Kimberley, which she paints in lively groups with tall headdresses, adornments and tools. She also paints Wandjina and related rock art imagery. Her work was shown in Revealed at Fremantle Arts Centre in 2019 and Across the Water in 2024, and she illustrated Father Anscar McPhee's book A Hero in the Night Time of the Dreaming.