[Zorah]

The rainbow serpent/snake is a major mythological being for Aboriginal people across Australia, although the creation stories associated with it are best known from northern Australia. Such is its significance that it has been described as "an agent of destiny" for Aboriginal people.

It is a being often known to inhabit deep waterholes and is the underlying Aboriginal mythology for the famous Outback "bunyip". It is known both as a benevolent protector of its people (the groups from the country around) and as a malevolent punisher of law breakers. The rainbow serpent's mythology is closely linked to land, water, life, social relationships and fertility.

There are innumerable names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal traditions.

The serpent is associated with major, "high" ceremonies, and much of the underlying mythology is restricted. Representations of the rainbow serpent are found in many regions and in many forms. Some of these representations are ascribed a human origin, many others are considered to be "shades" or essences of the serpent itself left in the country during its travels. These places, along with the many waterholes and other places associated with the serpent's activities, hold special significance as sacred places to Aboriginal people.

The Dreaming
What is the Dreaming?

The Dreaming means our identity as people. The cultural teaching and everything, that's part of our lives here, you know?... it's the understanding of what we have around us.

Merv Penrith
Elder,
Wallaga Lake, 1996

The Dreaming has different meanings for different Aboriginal people. It is a complex network of knowledge, faith and practices that derive from stories of creation, and which dominates all spiritual and physical aspects of Aboriginal life. The Dreaming sets out the structures of society, the rules for social behaviour and the ceremonies performed in order to maintain the life of the land.

It governed the way people lived and how they should behave.

Those who did not follow the rules were punished.

The Dreamtime or Dreaming is often used to describe the time when the earth and humans and animals were created. The Dreaming is also used by individuals to refer to their own dreaming or their community's dreaming.

During the Dreaming, ancestral spirits came to earth and created the landforms, the animals and plants. The stories tell how the ancestral spirits moved through the land creating rivers, lakes and mountains. Today we know the places where the ancestral spirits have been and where they came to rest. There are explanations of how people came to Australia and the links between the groups throughout Australia. There are explanations about how people learnt languages and dance and how they came to know about fire.

In essence, the Dreaming comes from the land. In Aboriginal society people did not own the land it was part of them and it was part of their duty to respect and look after mother earth.

The Dreaming did not end with the arrival of Europeans but simply entered a new phase. It is a powerful living force that must be maintained and cared for.

Dreaming Stories

What are Dreaming Stories about?

Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia and there are different versions on the same theme. For example the story of how the birds got their colours is different in New South Wales and in Western Australia.

Stories cover many themes and topics. There are stories about creation of sacred places, landforms, people, animals and plants. There are also stories of language or the first use of fire. In more recent times there are stories telling of the arrival of the first Europeans on ships or stories about trading with Macassan fisherman in Northern Australia.

The Tracks of Life

The journey of the Spirit Ancestors across the land are recorded in Dreaming Tracks. A Dreaming track joins a number of sites which trace the path of an Ancestral Being as it moved through the landscape, forming its features, creating its flora and fauna and laying down the Laws. One of these Spirit Ancestors is the Rainbow Serpent, whose Dreaming track is shared by many Aboriginal communities across Australia.

Rainbow Serpent

And that... is the resting place of the Rainbow Serpent, and all of the gullies and all of the lagoon itself was about the Rainbow Serpent created after he had created the universe and all the dry gullies is the tracks that he's made looking for a resting place.

Carl McGrady,
Aboriginal Education Assistant,
Boggabilla, describing the path of the
Rainbow Serpent at Boobera Lagoon,
northern New South Wales, 1996.

The Rainbow Serpent is represented as a large, snake-like creature, whose Dreaming track is always associated with watercourses, such as billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. It is the protector of the land, its people, and the source of all life. However, the Rainbow Serpent can also be a destructive force if it is not properly respected.

The Rainbow Serpent is a consistent theme in Aboriginal painting and has been found in rock art up to 6000 years old. The Rainbow Serpent is a powerful symbol of the creative and destructive power of nature. Most paintings of Rainbow Serpents tell the story of the creation of the landscape particular to an artist's birthplace. Some aspects of Rainbow Serpent stories are restricted to initiated persons but generally, the image had been very public. Today, most artists add personal clan designs to the bodies of Rainbow Serpents, symbolising links between the artist and the land.

The Mimi Spirits

The Mimi are tall, thin beings that live in the rocky escarpment of northern Australia as spirits. Before the coming of Aboriginal people they had human forms. The Mimi are generally harmless but on occasions can be mischievous.

When Aboriginal people first came to northern Australia, the Mimi taught them how to hunt and cook kangaroos and other animals. They also did the first rock paintings and taught Aboriginal people how to paint.

THE RAINBOW SERPENT

by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal
(Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988)

Introduction

Aboriginal artist and educationalist Oodgeroo Noonuccal (formerly Kath Walker) was born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1920. She is an elder of the Noonuccal tribe of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), which is in Quandamooka (Moreton Bay) in Southern Queensland. Her youth was spent in Minjerribah, the traditional lands and waters of her people, who are custodians of the area. Kabul Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Vivian Walker) is her second son. (The spelling is as per the booklet.)

Well, gidday, gidday, all you earth fullas. Come, sit down, my country now. I see you come into sacred place of my tribe to get the strength of the Earth Mother. That Earth Mother …

We are different, you and me. We say the earth is our mother - we cannot own her, she owns us.

This rock and all these rocks are alive with her spirit. They protect us, all of us. They are her, what you fullas say now, temple. Since the Alcheringa, that thing you fullas call Dreamtime, this place has given man shelter from the heat, a place to paint, to dance the sacred dance and talk to his spirit. How does one repay such gifts?

By protecting the land.

This land is the home of the Dreamtime. The spirits came and painted themselves on these walls so that man could meet here, grow strong again and take this strength back into the world.

This is my totem, Kabul. You know her as the Carpet Snake. She is my tribe's symbol of the Rainbow Serpent, the giver and taker of life. Sometimes she is called Borlung, sometimes Ngalyod. She has many names, that wise one.

When the spirits of men have been made strong again by Kabul, she'll come back to this earth. But we are not strong now. We are too tired from fighting time, machines and each other. But she send her spirit ones with messages ticks to help us take time. To remember. To care for her special things.

First there is Dooruk, the emu, with the dust of the red Mother Earth still on his feet. He come to remind us to protect the land, to always put back as much as we take.

Then there is Kopoo, the big red kangaroo, the very colour of the land. He come to remind us to always take time for ourselves.

And Mungoongarlie, the goanna, last of all because his legs are short. He bring the news that we, his children, are forgetting to give time to each other.

But the animals of the Earth Mother come to say more than this. They come to say that our creator, that Rainbow Serpent, she get weak with anger and grief for what we are doing to this earth.

But here now you fullas. You come sit down by my fire. Warm yourselves and I will tell you the story of how this world began.

In the time of Alcheringa the land was flat and cold. The world, she empty. The Rainbow Serpent, she asleep under the ground with all the animals tribes in her belly waiting to be born. When it is her time, she pushed up.

She come out at the heart of my people - Uluru - Ayer's Rock. She look round - everywhere all dark. No light, no colour.

So she get very busy now. She throw the land out - make mountains and hills.

She call to her Frog Tribe to come up from their sleep and she scratch their belly to make them laugh.

The water they store in the bad time spill over the land making rivers and lakes. Then she throw good spirit Biami high in the sky. She tell him to help her find light. Now Biami, he a real good fulla. He jump up high in the sky and smile down on the land. The sky lit up from his smile and we, his children, saw colour and shadow.

And that warm sun spirit saw himself in the shining waters. The pine trees, they burst into flower. That's his way of telling us it's time to hunt the big mullet fish.

And when the wild hop trees bloom, that's his way to tell us the oysters are fat on the shores of our great sea spirit, Quandamooka.

Grow strong, Kabul, come back to your children, the mountains, the trees and our father, the sky. Come, bring us your birds of many colours. Come back to your rivers rushing to Quandamooka. Come back to your teeming fish of a thousand colours and shapes. Kabul is the mother of us all. She is the spirit of the land - all its beauty, all its colour. But there are those who see no colour, who will not feel the beauty of this land - who wish only to destroy the mother and themselves.

Their eyes are open but they do not see …

Kabul, bring back the fire of knowledge to your children. Like the fire of that pretty stone in the ground. The one you call opal. The colours of the rainbow, the colours of life itself …

Yet it is good for all people to dream of places which are beautiful to them, the water where they sail their boats and canoes.

And now it seems that with all our great machines we can travel almost anywhere. We can travel across the land at great speed. And, for some, the city with its bright lights and music and dancing of a modern world.

There is almost nothing mankind cannot do. We can hover or swoop in the air.

We do all these things with the land. Good reason to protect it.

But where would we ask our machines to take us? They have no spirit or feelings of their own. Only we can guide them to the places that have meaning for us.

That is why, list my ancestors before me, I will always come back to this place to share the feeling of the land with all living things. I belong here where the spirit of the Earth Mother is strong in the land and in me.

Take time you earth fullas. Let the spirit of this mighty land touch you as it touches my people.

The water is good. It carries the strength of Kabul. Now I am rested and ready for my own journey into the world.

Have I helped you to rest on your way? Perhaps soon all our travels, we will see Kabul in the places she has made.

Perhaps she will come again with the spirits of men and the spirit of this land are once more together as one.

Glossary

Alcheringa - The creation of the universe, the time known to most people as the Dreamtime or the Dreaming.

Aura - Traditional-living Aboriginal people believe that individuals possessing great knowledge and wisdom radiate with coloured light. A blue aura may mean great wisdom whereas a white aura may signify a higher level of wisdom, compared to a higher "dan". It is believed that the body reflects in colour its mental, physical and spiritual condition.

Biami - The Good Spirit. He is the sun. Although the name is fairly common to Aboriginal people, there are many different spellings.

Coolamon - A shallow vessel with curved sides, usually carved from hardwood. Sometimes ornately decorated with totemic designs, it is used for carrying everything from food to small infants.

Earth Mother - Aboriginal people believe that the earth is the mother of mankind, that humans are born of the land. Concepts of land possession, as in European culture and others, are entirely foreign to the Aboriginal people, who believe the land and man are inseparably linked forever.

Frog Tribe - All Aboriginal stores contain educative information about the environment which can assist in survival. In the creation story, the Frog Tribe reference teaches a way of finding water in a drought. In areas of extreme weather conditions, frogs will bloat themselves with water in the wet season and bury themselves in mud. When the waterholes dry up in the dry season, the animal lives underground on the ingested moisture in a kind of suspended animation. Hunters who find themselves in waterless areas can easily find a drink at a dried-up waterhole by digging up a frog, puncturing the stomach and drinking the water stored inside.

Fullas -This is a term familiar to most Australians and in general was a colloquial way of referring to a group of men; but in the development of an Aboriginal 'patois' of the English language, like a regional dialect, the term has taken on a wider meaning and refers to all people, not just men.

Gidday - A greeting or salutation familiar to all Australians. Widely used at any time of day to mean 'hello'.

Message Sticks - A stick of communication bearing important universal symbols sent from one tribe to another.

Opal - Semi-precious gem of rich colours found mainly in central west Queensland.

Quandamooka - To the Noonuccal Tribe from the Minjerrbah (Stradbroke Island), Quandamooka is the sacred water spirit of Moreton Bay (near Brisbane).

Rainbow Serpent - The mother of life to all Aboriginal tribes. As the story indicates, she is the spirit responsible for the colour and shape of the land we live in.

Sacred place/sacred site - Aboriginal people believe that the land is spiritually alive and that certain place (usually of extraordinary natural beauty), are the resting places of the creator, the mother of life, the Rainbow Serpent. These areas command absolute respect from the Aboriginal people and, during regular visits to re-establish contact with the Earth Mother and the spirit world, traditional Aboriginal conservation customs are practised. For instance, movement and voice levels are kept to a minimum; the area is meticulously inspected; controlled burning and seed distribution are practised if necessary; and sacred painting or carving are ceremoniously retouched. This practice of retouching, as in the story, ensures that the spirits do not grow weak, and that they will continue to ply their good favour upon the people.

Totem - All Aboriginal tribes have creatures which are sacred to them. Animals special to a given tribes may not be hunted in any way, captured or eaten by that tribe for these animals are considered to have been blood relatives since their Alcheringa. A kangaroo man cannot eat a kangaroo, a carpet snake man cannot eat a carpet snake, and so on. It is believed that humans were once animals born of the Rainbow Serpent. She bestowed human form as a gift for keeping her law. The law that no man may eat his totem is really pure conservation ensuring the survival of all species in a given area.

Uluru/Ayer's Rock - The birth place of the Rainbow Serpent. Uluru is the living altar and symbol of creation for the Aboriginal people.

[seeker1950]

Thank you so much for the explanation of the Dreaming and the Serpent. I am doing "Aboriginal Art" right now with my middle school art students, and find this explanation very enlightening.
Patty