In exchange for protection, the elders have decided to go public, to reveal their sacred secrets about certain sites. Some sites are known only to their community. Beginning in 1992, they travelled together to sacred sites, and Doring filmed them as they talked, linking the archaic images left by their ancestors with the beliefs and rites that still govern their daily life. The elders reveal the origins of wunan, the universal law of sharing, which may be the oldest form of democratic law. Then, at midday, forum participants will go to the Jardin des Plantes where the Ngarinyin will introduce an exhibition on the Pathway Project at the Mus um National d Histoire Naturelle.
Rock art is universal.
Organizers hope that the Forum will lead to a proposal for a long-term project for the protection of the Ngarinyin cultural heritage. The Ngarinyin are the most important tribe living on the Kimberley plateau. They number today about a thousand people living mostly in a camp in the town of Derby. The four elders, who will spend ten days in France, have never before travelled outside of their homeland. Paddy Neowarra, a wodoi of the Galenrugarri clan, is the youngest of the four, at age 67.