The focus here is on the specialties and the different representations of the Rainbow Serpent by different tribes of Australian Aborigines. It also explains the stories that are told about the Rainbow Serpent among the infinite number of tribes that prevailed, and about the importance of the Rainbow Serpent in art and spirituality as well.
Like Indian mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology also plays a vital role in the lives of the Australian people. Australian Aborigines were the people who were much attached to their environment. They created a world named “The dreamtime” and created a large number of stories to make people live an ethical and peaceful life. Kleinert and Neale, the editors of The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (2000) quotes the French Anthropologist Barbara Glowczewski’s remark on Warlpiri people who says, “the dreaming appeared to me not like a mythical time of reference but as a parallel space-time, a permanency in movement, with which the Warlpiri have a relation of feedback (41)”.
She believes that a sacred site is “a connection between a foundational creation and current life (41)” that is well brought to the limelight through their stories. These stories were large in number, which deal with the creation of universe, earth, land, flora, and human beings. Each creation has a story behind it and in this way Australian Aboriginal myths have an exclusive creativity and the loyalty they had for their people and land and for their animals.
These dreamtime stories still exist and preach people in all walks of life. A.W.Reed in his introduction to Aboriginal Myths, Legends, Fables (1993) observing their intimacy with their land and animals remarks that, “both men and animals were part of the endless Dreamtime that began with the deeds of totemic ancestors. Their deeds are part of life, and men are part of animals, as animals are of men, therefore both are usually capitalised in the text (10)”.
Such has been the entry of the mythical creature named the Rainbow Serpent which plays a major role in the Australian Aboriginal myths and in the lives of Aboriginal people as well. There are about 400 types of Aborigines and this myth of the Rainbow Serpent is common to all of them. These tribes had their own dialects and languages living in different parts of Australia, especially Northern Australia.
Hence the stories and symbols about the Rainbow Serpent also differs depending on the environmental conditions in which the tribes lived. Though there are a number of stories with many representations, they all believed in this huge called the among different tribes, but the only common name is the Rainbow Serpent.
Each tribe called it differently among which some of the known names are Bobbi-Bobbi, Dhaka, Kaleru Julungul, Yurlunggur, Wonambi, Worambi and Woinunggur. The common name the “Rainbow Serpent” was first given to it in 1926 by a British Anthropologist professor Alfred Radicliffe-Brown. He specialised in Australian Aboriginal ethnology and ethnography and notices that some of the tribes had a common myth which was about the most powerful, creative and a dangerous snake in a gigantic size. He also found that it was associated with rainbow, rain, water, rivers, and blood.
Radcliffe–Brown coined the term the “Rainbow Serpent” since there was no common name among these tribal people. And further, a common name was needed for the art galleries, museums and for the international people to know more about it. The serpent is named so because it was rainbow coloured. Brown found out the other names of this serpent in different areas like Takkan, Myndie, Bunyip etc.
The serpent is mostly seen in celestial blue, multi-coloured and yellow red stripped. This colour variation is seen because of the use of myth in different tribes and countries. The Rainbow Serpent myth is common in Africa and Japan also. This creature is said to be huge with enormous powers. Though wingless, it could fly. The Rainbow Serpent is mostly either a copper python or a Taipan which is highly venomous. Armhem Land people believe that the serpent is made of the parts of different animals like kangaroo’s or a flying fox’s head, crocodile’s tail decorated with water lilies and waving tendrils.
There are several representations about this serpent. They are fertility, destroyer of law breakers, creator of flora and fauna, a medicine man, guardian of water, rain etc. Each tribe considers him to be so, that suits their geographical location. He is a positive creature, yet he is believed to be greedy of water at times. He often swallows people and hence frightens them.
The very first Rainbow Serpent created was called by people as Wonambi Naracoortensis, who was five to six metres long. He was not a predator and did not use its venom but would kill his prey by constriction. His head is small which expands accordingly to the size of the prey. This species has been found out to be the first extinct snake in Australia.
This mythical creature of the Dreamtime was considered sacred by the Aborigines, since it was the first creation of the now known Rainbow Serpent. He is said to have lived during the Pleistocene Ice Age in the suntraps beside the waterholes. His prey has been kangaroo, wallaby and whatever came to drink water and hence children were denied the permission to go to such places.
Many tribes believed that if there was no Rainbow Serpent, there would be no life to exist. Such was the power and guardianship of the great snake. The snake that gave water was the life-giving source to the people. He was considered as one of the greatest totemic ancestors. Most of the spiritual happenings of these Aborigines have been rooted from the journey of their spirit Ancestors.
This journey has been rewarded as Dreaming Track which has given birth to several creatures, flora, and fauna. One of the most pervasive and well known of the spirit ancestors is the Rainbow Serpent, whose Dreaming Track is shared by many tribes. This is the reason for the serpent to be considered as the totemic ancestor.
As the Aboriginal people do believe in two worlds, the one in which they live and the other is the Dreamtime, they consider this Rainbow Serpent as a rainbow that bridges both Heaven and Earth. Through this the Dreamtime is connected to the present world of reality and thus the creation of Mythical Ancestor connects both the present and the future which is the reason for the people to rely on him.
Hence, there are many stories related to the Rainbow Serpent depending on the tribes. Yet there are several common elements among them. They believe that the Almighty God created Heaven and Earth, yet during the time of creation, Dreamtime had been passive, colourless, and lifeless.
At that time, the Ancestor, the Rainbow Serpent has descended from the Earth creating valleys and rivers on the tracks made by him while crawling. Then filled the world with his creation of plants and animals. Certain people believe that he even created human beings. It has advised them to follow the norms he has created for them and he punished whoever went against the law.
One of the stories says that the ancestor, the Rainbow woke up and came to Earth from the after a long period. It saw the land was dry and asked the frogs to come out from their places. They came slowly since they were feeling heavy with water tickled. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs and when they laughed water gushed out that filled the tracks made by the serpent. Through this it became the creator of water, billabongs, and rivers. It is said that once an aged woman named Kunapipi made a long journey across the country in the Dreamtime who was preceded by the Rainbow Serpent. Being the creator of water, “he cleared the way for her by uprooting the trees and causing rivers to flow towards the sea (80) “. He has also created floods and storms.
He stays in waterholes or rivers in wet seasons and during dry seasons, he stays in the mud and in rainy seasons. He seems to rise and fly like a rainbow. Like the Chinese dragon Yu, he sometimes carves deep in riverbeds while travelling across the Earth. Apart from these he also plays a duel role – creation and destruction like that of an Indian mythical snake.
He also safeguards water and the people who follow him. He floods and storms to destroy the people whom he finds to be the lawbreakers. This is one of the reasons for the people to believe strongly in the Rainbow Serpent who guards them all through their lives.
Kalseru has been the Goddess of rain and fertility found among the tribes of Northern Australia. One of the Rainbow Serpents is named Yurlunggul or Jullunggul who is the “great further” of other Serpents. There are two same stories with different endings varying among different tribes. In this first story, Julunggul, as he is called, lives in a waterhole.
Two Walawag sisters, the elder who was pregnant and the younger one came to rest on the River Roper where Julunggul lived. The elder gave birth to a baby and they both took rest that night. Jullunggul who had be looked at them sleeping came out of the surface of the water smelling the blood of the elder sister. Seeing him, the younger sister, picked up some twigs and started dancing the whole night.
Jullungul left them and went away. The younger sister felt tired of dancing which saved her elder sister and son. She then fell into an exhausted sleep. But after some time, Jullungul came back again and swallowed them all. He laid down for his prey to get digested. But before that an ant stung him and regurgitated the swallowed women out who were dead by then. He swallowed them again and took rest.
He lay down to sleep but was bitten by an ant and stung to wakefulness. He disgorged the contents of his stomach, but the women were no longer alive. The sisters were swallowed for the second time and devoured at his leisure. (87)
The same story has a different ending where the serpent is named Yurlunggul. He too swallowed them, but no ant stung him, instead he arched his body like a rainbow towards the sky and called his species to come out. All snakes creeped out and were shocked to hear what Yurlunggul had done. He said, “Dead. Dead. Entombed in my body. You see I have you snakes. Women are evil” for which the other snakes objected and blamed him for killing and eating his own kin. They further asked him to regurgitate them. Yurlunggul felt ashamed and disgorged the women and the child alive. They thanked everyone and continued their journey.
Yurlunggul lowered himself. His mouth opened to its widest extent. With his body flat on the ground, he heaved. The women tumbled out of its mouth, and Misilgoe waited for her son who laughed and gurgled as he fell into the waiting arms. (392)
The same story with two different versions is available, where once the women were dead and in the other story, they came alive again. These differences are due to the differences that prevail among people who change or develop the stories which suit their landscape and tradition. This difference does not prove that Yurlunggur is notorious but is one of its qualities to swallow people. When all his powers and guardianship are invited and accepted then his bad deed of eating people must also be equally accepted.
In another story, a Rainbow Serpent existed and was called as Pulwaiya by the Aboriginal people which “father’s father”. One of such Pulwaiyas had been named Taipan, generally a Brown snake. He possessed many supernatural powers like a common Rainbow Serpent. He cured people from their sickness.
He could give relief to anyone who had inadvertently swallowed a bone by sucking it out of his body. He commanded thunder and lightning by magic with a sharpened flint attached to a string. By throwing it against a tree or stone, a sheet of flame flared out and the noise of the concussion would echo through the hills……………. he could cure men and women of their ailments. He had the power to cause rain and floods to devastate the countryside. (82)
He had a son who was also named Taipan. Once the son took a long journey and, on the way, he met a black water snake who was the wife of Wala, a blue- tongued lizard. They fell in love at first sight and eloped before Wala came back from his hunting. Wala realised their eloping and somehow tried to find them.
Taipan and Wala fought for a long time and gave up, for they both were equally strong. Wala decided that he would give Taipan the first chance to bite him and if Taipan failed, Wala would bite him. Agreeing, Taipan tried to bite Wala on his neck, but he failed since the lizard’s skin is rough and thick. He felt exhausted and tired.
In no time, Wala grabbed Taipan and bit him on his neck. Not stopping with this he cut and tore open his heart. He took the blood and heart of Taipan to Pulwaiya. Thus, Taipan was punished, and Wala went away with his wife.
Pulwaiya called all his children and everyone grieved over their sibling’s death. They all took some of the things as a remembrance of Taipan. His sisters took his blood and went back to their home in rainbow. That is the reason for the window to have a red mark in it followed by a blue one who is Pulwaiya himself.
The rainbow is the totem site of his daughters, where the blood of their brother provides the red course in that shining bow, just as the blue course is that of Taipan, the Rainbow Serpent. (84). Pulwaiya had his son’s heart for himself and sank under a milk wood tree that stood close to the lake which was formed on the day by rain and blood. If anyone tried to disturb the serpent, thunder roared, and lightning would flash from the sky. His daughters would join him during dry seasons and when rain came, they would go back to their home in rainbow where their brother shines. This explains the ability of the Rainbow Serpent to control the blood supply.
This attraction towards blood is the only reason for Yurlunggur to swallow the Walwag sisters. Chris Knight, a professor of Anthropology in his Menstrual Synchrony and the Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake (1986) quotes from McCarthy that the snake was attracted not only by the elder sister’s after blood but also by the younger one who has just attained puberty and started menstruating. It was also a puberty celebration, in the words of the mythical younger sister,” a very happy time, for this is my first menstruation (235)”.
The flow of the two women has attracted him. Hence, it “came out of its womb like waterhole” to swallow the sisters and the child. He also suggests that the flow of blood is seen when the snake appears, ’where there is no blood, there is no snake (235)”. This attraction towards blood is seen in many of the stories and in one way it helps women, since a Rainbow Serpent is seen both as a male and female. It is considered as a male since it guards people and acts as a life giving source and considered as a female since it guards women from being seduced by men. Women, especially Mungamunga tribal women consider the Rainbow Serpent to be the guardian mother, Yingama the mother of creation. She saves them whenever they are in danger. This is because when a woman wants to avoid having intercourse with a man, she could immediately menstruate.
Women have two ways of avoiding men, through water and blood. The flow of blood helps themselves from the threat and heterosexuality. Once a man named Bananggala wanted Them to copulate with Mungamunga women. avoided him by saying that they menstruated and hence he had to wait for a while. This is one way of escaping. In another story, two men tried to encounter a Mungamunga woman. “They each say to him, I ‘ve got blood; You wait for a while (238)” as pointed out by R. Berndt in 1951.
She relieved herself from their grip and jumped into the nearby waterhole and started menstruating. This is another way of avoiding heterosexual intercourse. Diving into the water makes them feel protected like being in mother’s womb. This is the reason for representing the Rainbow Serpent as the controller of the physiological process and a mother of creation. This belief is seen in the Mungamunga tribal people.” No sooner did they seize a Mungamunga and put her on the ground, ready for coitus, than she slides away, jumps, and runs down to the lagoon and dives into its water (239).
Once a man named Purra was looking for a wife and while crossing a creek he found the water to be red. He decided that a woman must be there at the time of her menstruation and searched for her. He found a girl whose lower half was in the water and the upper half on the surface. He realized that she was the daughter of the Rainbow Serpent and took her away. Purra was aware that her father would come in search of them. But the Serpent took his daughter back by creating a flood. The author says.
“But he knew that her father, the serpent, would be after him”. He tried to run away but the serpent followed. Purra kept lighting fires to keep the Serpent away, but one day “the big rain came”; it extinguished Purra’s firestick and caused a flood into which Purra’s wife disappeared. (236).
This story connects the idea of the Rainbow Serpent to be the mother who allows her daughters to be wet, that saves from men. It also shows the troubles of men getting married. “…. links the notion of being wet or in the rains with a women’s menstrual state and consequent non- availability as wife. At the same time, it emphasises that to be “wet “and menstruating is to be under the guardianship of the serpent (240)”.
The red colour of the serpent symbolises blood which stands for both fertility and guardianship of the serpent. It serves as a mother through the waterhole in which it lives, and this waterhole is considered as a womb which guards women from the hands of men. By guarding them it also serves as a responsible father. Thus, it acts both as a male and a female. Radcliffe – Brown believed that the Rainbow Serpent “represents the element of water (242)”.
Warner believed that it represents “the symbol of weather (242)”. Apart from these, there are many other representations of the Rainbow Serpent. The symbol of the snake being both a male and a female unites the genders together. It shows men and women are equal in all aspects and both of their lives are merged in unity like that of Lord Shiva and Kundalini or Shakthi.
It is further believed by many of the tribes that the disgorging of the men or women by the serpent gives them a new life, a new rebirth. Chris Knight says, “The resultant power is conceptualized as a rainbow-like snake, which is said to be the source of life and which “swallows” human and then “regurgitates “them, now reborn (232)”. Since he is also a symbol of birth and death, his disgorging of the Walawag sisters represents this and hence this becomes a religious ritual among them.
The story of Taipan brings home the moral about the relationship that must be maintained between a man and a woman through marriage. Aboriginal stories teach adults and children how to lead a married life. Rosemary Van den Berg of Murdoch University in her Aboriginal Storytelling and Writing quotes J.E. Hammond’s view that, “They learn about marriage the right way- who they could marry, and who they could not marry. Marriage the wrong could cause dissension and sometimes death to the perpetrators (55) “.
His idea is clearly visible in the story of Taipan where the snake Taipan elopes with another man’s wife and at last ends his life miserably but committing a big blunder which is considered a bad deed by the Aborigines. It further shows that even the totemic ancestors committed several blunders and were also punished severely according to the blunders that they have committed.
In another story in Northern Australia, a river flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria where the Rainbow Serpent and his wife lived. It is red and yellow stripped, and its wife was seen in blue. He does not allow anyone to waste water or to have fun by disturbing the water living creatures. If he finds anyone doing so, or catching a fish for sport, he punishes them.
He often strolls with his wife after rain and their bodies stretch across the sky. Once, a lot of hailstones fell from the sky which surprised the people living there, they go near and found the stones burrow in the ground very slowly. They were unable to decide whether they vanished or went into ground.
An old man asked them for a digging stick, and he dug into the ground. He found some worms moving and told people that they were the children of the Rainbow Serpent, which have hatched out of the eggs. At the bottom of the holes he found worms, which was not surprising, for if you dig in the right place you will nearly always find forms.
‘These are the children of the Rainbow snake ‘, the old man said triumphantly. ‘they have hatched out from the white eggs that fell from the sky ‘. (381)
All these stories reveal the characteristics of the Rainbow Serpent in different forms. Apart from them, the Rainbow Serpent is also a symbol of Australian Aboriginal spirituality. The religious belief and customs of indigenous Australians have been influenced by other, most of them cultures around the world which is the impact of colonialism. Though some Aborigines share these beliefs most of them have derived spirituality from a sense of belonging to the land, their own people, and communities and by being a part of one’s own culture.
Most of the communities believed in the same myth and had the prevailing spiritual expressions of the people have been rooted into them by the journey of these ancestors. Only by following their footsteps, they found a way leading to a spiritual life. Though the serpent has been in various forms, he has created spirituality among people which keeps them forever in the Dreamtime.
He also creates a bond between the Almighty and the people helping them lead their lives peacefully. He does not stop with spirituality alone. Till now people use his shapes and forms in their art and craft. Artists use their creativity in designing the serpent painting. They believe that the Rainbow Serpent is the source of all life and especially spirituality is the main part of his other acts.
There are even many brands producing company named after the Rainbow Serpent which has a greater value among people. The weapons of Aboriginal people made now like boomerang and the didgeridoo have good value which represents their cultural heritage. They further produce furniture, paintings, and unique jewellery. Such has been the impact of the Dreamtime creature, the Rainbow Serpent.
All these combines to have a celebration and a get-together for the Australian people. They celebrate the Rainbow Serpent Festival once every year as a four-day celebration during the weekend of January. Thousands of people from are attracted towards it. This festival connects people from all walks of life, through the world where they experience and learn new things.
Many talented hands are given a chance to exhibit their skills in front of everyone. Creative activists, dance music, medicine, health tips are provided to them. Further, people find it a place where they can nurture themselves and share their views and ideas. They also conduct many soul healing and mind awakening tips. All these are dedicated to the Dreamtime Ancestor, which is named after him.
All these stories and festivals prove the attitude of the Aboriginal people towards snakes which is different when it comes to other cultures. More like Indians, they look at them with a positive notion. Their intimacy with the totemic ancestor, which is basically a mythical creature and their benefits in being guarded and getting the source of life reveal that reptiles or animals were not rejected by these people from their lives. These people treat them with respect as they respect their environment since they are created for the welfare of the people themselves.
It is to be noted that the Aboriginal people address the Rainbow Serpent as “he” or “she” and not as it. This shows their oneness with their land and animals by treating them with no difference. All these qualities are imposed on their children to follow their footsteps in their future. Hence, as Rosemary Van Den Berg in her essay “Aboriginal Storytelling and Writing” aptly comments, “storytelling was a learning process for them who learnt from an early age how to survive their environment by listening to their elders” (1).