Rainbow Serpent

The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as a creator god,[1]
known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different
Aboriginal peoples. It a common motif in the art and religion of many Aboriginal Australian
peoples.[2]

Australian Aboriginal rock painting of the "Rainbow Serpent".

There are many names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate
the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal mythology, which includes the
worldview commonly referred to as The Dreaming. The serpent is viewed as a giver of life
through its association with water, but can be a destructive force if angry. The Rainbow
Serpent is one of the most common and well-known Aboriginal stories and is of great
importance to Aboriginal society.[3][4]
Not all of the myths of the ancestral being link a rainbow with the snake and not all describe
the being as a snake, but there is usually a link with water or rain.[5] Some scholars have
suggested that the link between the two suggests the cycle of the seasons, for example blue
(winter), red (summer), yellow (spring) and orange (autumn), and the importance of water in
human life.[6] When the rainbow is seen in the sky, it is said to be the Rainbow Serpent
moving from one waterhole to another and the divine concept explained why some
waterholes never dried up when drought struck.[5]

The Rainbow Serpent Festival is an annual festival of music, arts and culture in Victoria.[7]

Names in different cultures

Myndie c. 1878

The Rainbow Serpent is known by different names by the many different Aboriginal cultures.

Yurlunggur is the name of the "rainbow serpent" according to the Murngin (Yolngu) in north-
eastern Arnhemland,[8] also styled Yurlungur,[9][2] Yulunggur,[10][11] Jurlungur,[12] Julunggur[13]
or Julunggul.[14][15] The Yurlunggur was considered "the great father".[9]

The serpent is called Witij/Wititj by the Galpu clan of the Dhangu people, one of Yolngu
peoples.[1][16]

Kanmare is the name of the great water serpent in Queensland[a] among the Pitapita people
of the Boulia District; it is apparently a giant carpet snake, and recorded under the name
Cunmurra further south.[b][18][21] The same snake is called Tulloun among the Mitakoodi
(Maithakari).[22] Two mythical Kooremah of the Mycoolon (Maikulan) tribe of Queensland, are
cosmic carpet snakes 40 miles long, residing in watery realm of the dead, or on the pathway
leading to it;[23]this is probably equivalent to the rainbow snake also.[24]

Other names include:

Bolung in the Northern Territory, by the Dangbon/Dalabon/Buan and Rembarrnga[25][6]

muitj (var. Moitt, Muit ) in Central Arnhemland [26] by the Rembarrnga,[27] etc.
 Ngalyod[c] by the Kunwinjku[2][28]
Yingarna, the original (female) Rainbow Serpent, whose son is Ngalyod, though these
names may be used interchangeably[29][30]

Dhakkan (or Takkan) by the Gubbi Gubbi (Kabi)[5]

Andrénjinyi by the natives of Pennefather River, North Queensland[31]

Kajura by the Ingarda[5]

Goorialla by the Lardil people[32]

Kunmanggur by the Murinbata[2]

Numereji by the Kakadu (Gaagudju)[33]

Taipan by the Wikmunkan[2]

Wagyl by the Noongar[34]

Wanamangura by the Thalanyji (Talainji)[5]

Galeru[2]

Langal[2]

Myndie[35]

Ungur[2]

Wollunqua by the Warumungu[2]

Wonambi[2]

Wonungar[2]

Worombi[2]

Yero[2]

Development of concept

Though the concept of the Rainbow Serpent has existed for a very long time in Aboriginal
Australian cultures, it was introduced to the wider world through the work of
anthropologists.[36] In fact, the name Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake appears to have
been coined in English by Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, an anthropologist who noticed the same
concept going under different names among various Aboriginal Australian cultures, and
called it "the rainbow-serpent myth of Australia."[5] It has been suggested that this name
implies that there is only one Rainbow Serpent, when the concept actually varies quite a bit
from one Aboriginal culture to another, and should be properly called the Rainbow Serpent
myths of Australia.[37]

It has also been suggested that the Serpent's position as the most prominent creator god in
the Australian tradition has largely been the creation of non-Aboriginal anthropologists.[36]
Another error of the same kind is the way in which Western-educated people, with a cultural
stereotype of Greco-Roman or Norse myths, tell the Aboriginal stories in the past tense. For
the indigenous people of Australia, the stories are everywhen – past, present and future.[38]

Characteristics

The rainbow serpent is in the first instance, is the rainbow itself.[39][d] It is said to inhabit
particular waterholes, springs etc., owing to the fact that such bodies of water can can
exhibit spectral colors by diffracting light, according to one explanation.[39] Likewise, the
rainbow

Quartz crystal and certain seashells are also associated with the Rainbow Serpent, and used
in rituals,[2]{{Refgroup="lower-alpha"|Quartz crystal and "elongated pieces of pearl-shell,
pindjauandja" by medicine men of Forrest River District, in rites involving the rainbow
serpent.[40] and the underlying reasons are likewise explainable, since quartz acts as a prism
to diffract light into different colours, while the mother of pearl exhibits an iridescence of
colours.[41][e]

The Dreaming[3] (or Dreamtime or Tjukurrpa or Jukurrpa[1]) stories tell of the great spirits and
totems during creation, in animal and human form that moulded the barren and featureless
earth. The Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges,
mountains, and gorges as it pushed upward. The Rainbow Serpent is understood to be of
immense proportions and inhabits deep permanent waterholes[43] and is in control of life's
most precious resource, water. In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the
ultimate creator of everything in the universe.[15]

In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is male; in others, female; in yet others, the gender is
ambiguous or the Rainbow Serpent is hermaphroditic[2] or bisexual, thus an androgynous
entity. Some commentators have suggested that the Rainbow Serpent is a phallic symbol,[44]
which fits its connection with fertility myths and rituals. When the Serpent is characterized as
female or bisexual, it is sometimes depicted with breasts, as in the case of the Kunmanggur
serpent.[45][46] Other times, the Serpent has no particular gender.[47]

The serpent is sometimes ascribed with a having crest or a mane or on its head, or being
bearded as well.[13]
while it is single-headed, the Yurlunggur of Arnhem land may possess a double-body.[13]

In some stories, the Serpent is associated with a bat, sometimes called a "flying fox" in
Australian English, engaged in a rivalry over a woman.[47] Some scholars have identified other
creatures, such as a bird, crocodile, dingo,[37] or lizard, as taking the role of the Serpent in
stories. In all cases, these animals are also associated with water.[6] The Rainbow Serpent
has also been identified with, or considered to be related to, the bunyip, a fearful, water-hole
dwelling creature in Australian mythology.[48][37][49]

The sometimes unpredictable Rainbow Serpent (in contrast to the unyielding sun)
replenishes the stores of water, forming gullies and deep channels as the Rainbow Serpent
slithers across the landscape.[50] In this belief system, without the Serpent, no rain would fall
and the Earth would dry up.[3] In other cultures, the serpent stops rainfall: the Numereji
serpent's iwaiyu (its soul or shadow) cast upon the sky becomes the rainbow, and the serpent
ascends to stop the rain,[33] the Andrénjinyi is said to halt the rain caused by enemies.[31]

The Rainbow Serpent is sometimes associated with human blood, especially circulation and
the menstrual cycle, and considered a healer.[2] Thunder and lightning are said to stem from
when the Rainbow Serpent is angry,[2] and the Serpent can even cause powerful rainstorms
and cyclones.[3]

Serpent stories

Stories about the Rainbow Serpent have been passed down from generation to generation.[34]
The serpent story may vary however, according to environmental differences. Peoples of the
monsoonal areas depict an epic interaction of the sun, Serpent, and wind in their Dreamtime
stories, whereas those of the central desert experience less drastic seasonal shifts and their
stories reflect this.[50] 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. The
Rainbow Serpent often takes part in transitions from adolescence to adulthood for young
men and swallows them to vomit them up later.[2]

The most common motif in Rainbow Serpent stories is the Serpent as creator, with the
Serpent often bringing life to an empty space.[4]

One prominent Rainbow Serpent myth is the story of the Wawalag[15] or Wagilag sisters, from
the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land.[1] According to legend, the sisters are travelling together
when the older sister gives birth, and her blood flows to a waterhole where the Rainbow
Serpent lives.[15] In another version of the tale, the sisters are travelling with their mother,
Kunapipi, all of whom know ancient secrets, and the Serpent is merely angered by their
presence in its area.[1] The Rainbow Serpent then traces the scent back to the sisters
sleeping in their hut, a metaphor for the uterus. The Rainbow Serpent enters, a symbolic
representation of a snake entering a hole, and eats them and their children. However, the
Rainbow Serpent regurgitates them after being bitten by an ant,[15] and this act creates
Arnhem Land. Now, the Serpent speaks in their voices and teaches sacred rituals to the
people living there.[1]

Wollunqua is the Warumungu people's version of the Rainbow Serpent, telling of an

enormous snake which emerged from a watering hole called Kadjinara in the Murchison
Ranges, Northern Territory.[51]

Another story from the Northern Territory tells of how a great mother arrives from the sea,
travelling across Australia and giving birth to the various Aboriginal peoples.[52] In some
versions, the great mother is accompanied by the Rainbow Serpent (or Lightning Snake), who
brings the wet season of rains and floods.[52]

From the Great Sandy Desert area in the northern part of Western Australia comes a story
that explains how the Wolfe Creek Crater, or Kandimalal, was created by a star falling from
heaven, creating a crater in which a Rainbow Serpent took up residence, though in some
versions it is the Serpent which falls from heaven and creates the crater. The story
sometimes continues telling of how an old hunter chased a dingo into the crater and got lost
in a tunnel created by the Serpent, never to be found again, with the dingo being eaten and
spat out by the Serpent.[53]

The Noongar people of south-western Western Australia tell of how Rainbow Serpents, or
Wagyls, smashed and pushed boulders around to form trails on Mount Matilda, along with
creating waterways such as the Avon River.[34] Some Aboriginal peoples in the Kimberley
region believe that it was the Rainbow Serpent who deposited spirit-children throughout
pools in which women become impregnated when they wade in the water. This process is
sometimes referred to as "netting a fish".[15]

A more child-friendly version of the Rainbow Serpent myth tells of how a serpent rose
through the Earth to the surface, where she summoned frogs, tickled their bellies to release
water to create pools and rivers, and is now known as the mother of life.[30] Another tale is
told in Dick Roughsey's children's book, which tells how the Rainbow Serpent creates the
landscape of Australia by thrashing about and, by tricking and swallowing two boys, ends up
creating the population of Australia by various animal, insect, and plant species.[32]

Iconography
The Serpent has been depicted in rock art in various forms, generally snake-like but it may
have heads resembling marsupials (macropods) or flying foxes, even birds or humans.[54]
Unlike an ordinary snake in nature, it may also be depicted with additional appendages such
as animal legs and feet, also manifests tails of various forms in rock art.[54]

Possible origins in nature

Wonambi naracoortensis and Thylacoleo

Various species/taxa of snakes in the natural world have been proposed as the model for the
rainbow serpent. Areas where rainbow serpent myth seemingly overlaps with the habitat
range of Boidae family snakes (boas) in general.[55]

One suggestion is that it is modeled on the "rock python", regarding the rainbow serpent in
the myth of the Wawilak sisters among the Yonglu people.[57] In some tellings of the sisters
myth, the encounter with the Yurlunggur serpent occurs in its water-hole called the Mirrimina
well, glossed as 'rock python's back'.[9] Specifically, the banded rock python (aka Childreni's
python; Liasis childreni <sc>syn.</sc> Antaresia childreni) has been identified with the
Yurlunggur by one researcher.[58] This species is of brown colour[59] (cf. Yurlunggur described
as "giant copper snake"[9]) flecked with darker patches and having a ventral side that is
opalescent white.[59]
Another suggestion is the Oenpelli rock python (aka Oenpelli python),[60] which is called
nawaran in the native Kunwinjku language, according to whose lore grew into the Ngalyod
serpent.[61] This snake is also brown with darker blotches[59] with iridescent scales.[60]

Another candidate is the water python (Liasis fuscus), which is a particularly colourful
snake.[62][63][f]

The carpet snake (Morelia spilota variegata) is considered a form that the Rainbow Serpent
can take by the Walmadjari people in northern Western Australia.[50] The Kanmare or
Kooremah of Queensland are also considered enormous carpet snakes, as already
mentioned.[64]

paleoherpetology

In Queensland, a fossil of a snake was found, and they believe that it came from the
prehistoric family of large snakes that may have inspired the original Rainbow Serpent.[36]

Wonambi is a genus that consisted of two species of very large snakes. These species were
not pythons, like Australia's other large constrictors of the genus Morelia, and are currently
classified in the extinct family Madtsoiidae that became extinct elsewhere in the world 55
million years in the past.

Role in traditional culture

In addition to stories about the Rainbow Serpent being passed down from generation to
generation, the Rainbow Serpent has been worshipped through rituals and has also inspired
cultural artefacts such as artwork and songs, a tradition which continues today.[15]

There are many ancient rituals associated with the Rainbow Serpent that are still practised
today.[15] The myth of the Wawalag sisters of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory marks
the importance of the female menstruation process and led to the establishment of the
Kunapipi blood ritual of the goddess, in which the Indigenous Australians allegorically
recreate the Rainbow Serpent eating the Wawalag sisters through dance and pantomime, and
can be regarded as a fertility ritual.[15]

Female menstruation is sacred to many Indigenous Australian cultures because it

distinguishes the time when a female is capable of bringing life into the world, putting a
woman on the same level of creative abilities as the Rainbow Serpent. It is for this reason
that men will attempt to mimic this holy process by cutting their arms and/or penises and
letting their blood run over their own bodies, each other's bodies, and even into a woman's
uterus. Men will sometimes mix their blood with a women's menstrual blood, letting them
flow together in a ceremonial unification of the sexes.[15]

The earliest known rock drawings of the Rainbow Serpent date back to more than 6,000 years
ago.[15] Because of its connections with fertility, the Rainbow Serpent is often illustrated as a
vagina, and vice versa. Some rock art has been discovered in which the Rainbow Serpent was
drawn mouth open and tongue out to represent the vaginal opening and streaming menstrual
blood.[15]

The Rainbow Serpent is also identified as a healer and can pass on its properties as a healer
to humans through a ritual.[65]

Influence in modern culture

Sidney Nolan's Snake (1970-72), held at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, is a giant Rainbow Serpent mural
made of 1620 painted panels.

The Rainbow Serpent, in addition to the continuation of traditional beliefs (which can be the
subject of religious controversy), is often referenced in modern culture by providing
inspiration for art, film, literature, music, religion, and social movements. For example, The
Rainbow Serpent Festival, an annual music festival in Australia,[66] and the Rainbow Serpent
Project, a series of films which document the filmmaker's journey to various sacred sites
around the Earth,[67] are both inspired and named after the creature.

Many Aboriginal Australian artists continue to be inspired by the Rainbow Serpent and use it
as a subject in their art.[36]

The Rainbow Serpent has also appeared as a character in literature. The Lardil people's
Dreaming story of the Rainbow Serpent was retold in Dick Roughsey's award-winning
Australian children's book The Rainbow Serpent;[32] the Rainbow Serpent has also appeared
as a character in comic books such as Hellblazer.[68] The Rainbow Serpent, under the name
Yurlungur, has featured as a demon or persona[69] in several titles of the Megami Tensei
series of Japanese role-playing games.

The Rainbow Serpent can still serve a religious role today, particularly for Aboriginal
Australians, but some Aboriginal Australians who are Christians reject the belief and resent
its identification with Aboriginal culture.[36] Some New Age religions and spirituality
movements around the world have now also adopted the Rainbow Serpent as an icon.[36]

Similarly, the Rainbow Serpent can inspire social movements.[65] Art historian Georges
Petitjean has suggested that the identification of the Rainbow Serpent with various genders
and sexualities helps to explain why the rainbow flag has been adopted as the symbol of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.[65] Politically, for example, the Rainbow
Serpent was adopted as the symbol of an anti-uranium mining campaign in Australia, using
the notion that the mining would disturb the Serpent and cause it to seek revenge as a
metaphor for environmental destruction.[65]

See also

Australian Aboriginal mythology § Rainbow Serpent

Serpent (symbolism)

Eingana

Wirnpa

Notes

a. The first example in the 1926 rainbow serpent paper by Radcliffe-Brown.

b. Given as Cunmurra in Duncan-Kemp (1933), in here reminiscences at "Mooraberrie homestead, 138

miles (222 km) west of Windorah"; Mooraberrie Station being approximately 180 miles (290 km)
south of Boulia.

c. Or Ngalmudj.[25]

d. Or at least in some instances, identified with the rainbow (or otherwise associated with the
rainbow).[22]

e. The Serpent is also identified with a prismatic halo around the moon that can be regarded as a sign
of rain.[42]

f. Other suggestions from a televised source include the scrub or amethystine python, the taipan, and
the file snake.[63]

References
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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rainbow Serpent.

A Rainbow Serpent myth accompanying Jimmy Njiminjuma bark painting (https://web.arch

ive.org/web/20070812015938/http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/australia/jenni
fer.sumner.aborigines/myth1.htm) Accessed 8 July 2008

Explaining Northern Land Council's use of the Rainbow Serpent in its logo (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20071217233530/http://www.nlc.org.au/html/abt_rainbow.html)
Accessed 8 July 2008
 First Australians television series (http://www.programs.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/cont
ent/) Accessed 29 April 2013

The Trails of the Rainbow Serpents short film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxPFx4z

3184) Accessed 3 May 2013

iDIDJ Australia: Australian Didgeridoo Cultural Hub (http://www.ididj.com.au)

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