Young dancers from Mowanjum community, (L-R) Nicholas Nenowatt, Dequan Puemorra and Mathais Bear get ready to perform.

These original paintings of the Wandjina, the creation spirit, are housed in in the Mowanjum art centre. The display replicates the caves found across the Kimberley. Worrorra elder, Donny Woolagoodja, who is highly respected in the community and a recognised artist internationally, created the works.

Three Wandjina creation spirits form a backdrop to the night’s performance. Elder Donny Woolagoodja, who was one of the Mowanjum Festival’s initiators back in 1998, introduces each dance on the microphone in the foreground.

Male dancers from Warmun community reveal a serpent hidden beneath the sand and hold it high during the snake dance, causing dust to billow in the night lights.

An artist works on a massive banner used in the Mowanjum Festival’s float parade. The painting is of a Wandjina spirit, which has big, round eyes, a white head and no mouth. According to cultural beliefs, the spirit is so powerful it has no need to speak.

Young Ngarinyin dancer, Keenan Bear is painted in different shades of ochre, as he prepares to perform in the night’s corroboree.

Dancers from Warmun community, also known as Turkey Creek, emerge from the shadows onto the dirt stage before 1500 onlookers.

During the festival, Aboriginal youngsters and non-indigenous visitors are taught cultural traditions, such as the careful art of boab nut carving.

One of the younger back up dancers for the argula – the white devil dance – is decorated in body paint. The ochre stripes and dots differ depending on the gender of the dancer and the story being told in the dance.

Gabriel Nodea is part of the Warmun dancer group from Turkey Creek, who travelled 750km to Mowanjum for the festival.

Worrora Dancers pound the earth with their feet during the hunting dance.

Boys and girls as young as four are involved in the dances.

Worrora Dancers carry colourful totems on their shoulders as they perform the canoe dance.

A dancer stamps his feet to the tinkle of clap sticks in the argula dance. He wears a fake beard to represent the devil spirit.

Dancers carry handmade totems on their shoulders during the corroboree. Totems are made from wooden boards, some are edged with colourful tread and they have pictures of eagles, snakes, and the Wandjina spirit painted in the centre.

Mowanjum kids often use multimedia, such as cameras, video gear and recording equipment to record and tell cultural stories, linking younger generations to their elders. This girl, painted up for the night’s corroboree, is undoubtedly a budding photographer.

Journalist Fleur Bainger shares her recording equipment with young Mowanjum girls, Narelle Umbagai (furthest away on L), Sash Ngerdu (wearing headphones), Shayleen Ngerdu and Meeka Numendumah (writing in Fleur’s notebook) who take to it like ducks to water.

A young performer is painted in different shades of ochre, perhaps the only moment he’ll stand still throughout the night.