Roy Wiggan was raised on Sunday Island Mission, north of Broome on the western coast of the Kimberley. As well as receiving a Mission education, Wiggan was also taught the traditional knowledge and practices of his Bardi people. As an Elder, he held sole rights over the production of these distinctive ilma.  

Ilma is an all-embracing term covering Bardi ceremonies and the objects used in them. Though made today using brightly coloured commercial wool, their construction derives from thread-cross artefacts originally made from hair or animal fur.

Though apparently abstract, ilma function as narrative seascapes and embody features of the sea such as tidal rips, waterspouts and storm clouds. This group by Wiggan represents events associated with his father’s survival after being washed out to sea when his raft broke. Through visitations from his father’s rai (spirit), Wiggan learned of this event and represents elements of his father’s three-day saga.