The stone country of the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in West Arnhem Land holds an extraordinary and significant body of kunwarddebim (rock art of the stone country) painted by the ancestors of today’s Nawarddeken people over thousands of years.There are estimated to be more than 30,000 rock art sites across the IPA, painted in a style unique to the region and using materials sourced from the land. Today, the Nawarddeken people remain the original archaeologists of this art and the archivists of the living knowledge connected to it.

'These paintings are the stories of Nawarddeken told over thousands of years. Some were painted by people like us and others were placed there by spirits. Rock art is our cultural heritage and we are the ones with a responsibility to care for these places.’
— Donna Nadjamerrek