The Rainbow Serpent and the Dreamtime

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The Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent (Snake) is an important part of the beliefs and culture of the people of western Arnhem Land. Today the Rainbow Serpent is associated with ceremonies about fertility and abundance, as well as the organisation of the community and the keeping of peace. The Rainbow Serpent is also part of the beliefs of Aboriginal people in other parts of Australia, but is best known from Arnhem Land. The Rainbow Serpent has been described by George Chaloupka, the foremost expert on the rock art of Arnhem Land, as follows: "The belief in the Rainbow Snake, a personification of fertility, increase (richness in propoagation of plants and animals) and rain, is common throughout Australia. It is a creator of human beings, having life-giving powers that send conception spirits to all the waterholes. It is responsible for regenerating rains, and also for storms and floods when it acts as an agent of punishment against those who transgress the law or upset it in any way. It swallows people in great floods and regurgitates their bones, which turn into stone, thus documenting such events. Rainbow snakes can also enter a man and endow him with magical powers, or leave 'little rainbows', their progeny, within his body which will make him ail and die. As the regenerative and reproductive power in nature and human beings, it is the main character in the region's major rituals." (from page 47, "Journey in Time", Reed 1993). Rock Art of the Rainbow Serpent Paintings of the Rainbow Serpent first appear in Arnhem Land rock art more than 6000 years ago, and perhaps as early as 8000 years before the present, as the seas rose after the last Ice Age. The most recent image was painted on rock in 1965, and the tradition has continued in work on bark and more recently on paper. The Rainbow Serpent is called Almudj by Gundjehmi and Mayali speakers and Ngalyod by Kunwinjku speakers. Among the Kunwinjku speaking people of western Arnhem Land, and many of their neighbours, numerous Rainbow Snakes are said to populate the landscapes that make up their homelands. Two types of Rainbow Serpents consistently turn up in their oral history, mythology, ceremonies and

Transcript of The Rainbow Serpent and the Dreamtime

Page 1: The Rainbow Serpent and the Dreamtime

The Rainbow SerpentThe Rainbow Serpent (Snake) is an important part of the beliefs and culture of the people of western Arnhem Land. Today the Rainbow Serpent is associated with ceremonies about fertility and abundance, as well as the organisation of the community and the keeping of peace. The Rainbow Serpent is also part of the beliefs of Aboriginal people in other parts of Australia, but is best known from Arnhem Land.

The Rainbow Serpent has been described by George Chaloupka, the foremost expert on the rock art of Arnhem Land, as follows:

"The belief in the Rainbow Snake, a personification of fertility, increase (richness in propoagation of plants and animals) and rain, is common throughout Australia. It is a creator of human beings, having life-giving powers that send conception spirits to all the waterholes. It is responsible for regenerating rains, and also for storms and floods when it acts as an agent of punishment against those who transgress the law

or upset it in any way. It swallows people in great floods and regurgitates their bones, which turn into stone, thus documenting such events. Rainbow snakes can also enter a man and endow him with magical powers, or leave 'little rainbows', their progeny, within his body which will make him ail and die. As the regenerative and reproductive power in nature and human beings, it is the main character in the region's major rituals." (from page 47, "Journey in Time", Reed 1993).

Rock Art of the Rainbow Serpent

Paintings of the Rainbow Serpent first appear in Arnhem Land rock art more than 6000 years ago, and perhaps as early as 8000 years before the present, as the seas rose after the last Ice Age.

The most recent image was painted on rock in 1965, and the tradition has continued in work on bark and more recently on paper. The Rainbow Serpent is called Almudj by Gundjehmi and Mayali speakers and Ngalyod by Kunwinjku speakers.

Among the Kunwinjku speaking people of western Arnhem Land, and many of their neighbours, numerous Rainbow Snakes are said to populate the landscapes that make up their homelands. Two types of Rainbow Serpents consistently turn up in their oral history, mythology, ceremonies and painted art: Yingarna, the female Rainbow Serpent, is the mother, the original creator being; and the male Rainbow Serpent, Ngalyod, is the transformer of the land. They often live in deep waterholes below waterfalls.

The Rainbow Snake is depicted as a long mythical creature made of the parts of different animals - kangaroo's or flying fox's head, crocodile's tail - joined along the body of a huge python decorated with water lilies, yams and waving tendrils. See, for example, the print on the right by Bardyal Nadjamerrek. Daughter of the original female Rainbow

Serpent, Yingarna.

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A Scientific Interpretation

The rock art images in western Arnhem Land have been studied in detail by Dr Paul Tacon, Dr Christopher Chippindale of the Cambridge University in Britain, and Meredith Wilson at the Australian National University. After using statistical methods to analyse 107 images, they say they have found convincing evidence that the first snake images were inspired directly by climate change and also claim to have identified a living model for them.

Tacon and Chippindale say that the first images of Rainbow Serpents appear in the rock art at the time of the Yam period identified by George Chaloupka, beginning around 6000 years ago, and that these set the pattern for all following images: a snake-like body, curved horse-like heads, at least two types of tails (pointed or spiked), and an assortment of plant and animal appendages, including wispy tendrils and ear-like projections.

At first the researchers thought of a seahorse, but after talking to Dr John Paxton, a fish expert at the Australian Museum, they settled on another, though related animal model - the ribboned pipefish, Haliichthys Taeniophora, which is found around Irian Jaya and the coast of northern Australia from Shark Bay in Western Australia to the Torres Strait.

The researchers matched features of likely animals that may have served as models for the images, and found that the ribboned pipefish matched most closely, over and above those of crocodiles, snakes and kangaroos and other creatures. A related pipefish, the Ghost Pipefish, is shown on the right.

The World's Oldest Religious Image?

This creature would have been unfamiliar to people living inland until the sea began rising after the last Ice Age and crept steadily inland, flooding familiar features and causing great disruption to climate, hunting and traditional patterns of life. Traditional food plants and animals dwindled and war increased as groups of people from diverse language and cultural groups were forced to share the diminishing landscape.

Because of this stress, the reasearchers reasoned, the serpent became a symbol of unity and peaceful cooperation, as well as of creation and destruction. From this they conclude that the Rainbow Serpent represents the world's oldest continuous religious tradition.

Source: Paul S.C. Tacon, Meredith Wilson and Christopher Chippindale 1996: "Birth of the Rainbow Serpent in Arnhem land rock art and oral history" Archaeology in Oceania 31 (1996) 103-124

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The Rainbow SerpentThe Rainbow Serpent is often described as the primary figure in the chronicle of Creation. In this myth, she creates many natural features and human beings and establishes the foundation of totemism.

In the Dreamtime all the earth lay sleeping. Nothing grew. Nothing moved. Everything was quiet and still. The animals, birds, and reptiles lay sleeping under the earth’s crust. Then one day the Rainbow Serpent awoke from her slumber and pushed her way through the earth’s crust, moving the stones that lay in her way.

When she emerged, she looked about her and then traveled over the land, going in all directions. She traveled far and wide, and when she grew tired she curled herself into a heap and slept. Upon the earth she left her winding tracks and the imprint of her sleeping body. When she had traveled all the earth, she returned to the place where she had first appeared and called to the frogs, “Come out!”

The frogs were very slow to come from below the earth’s crust, for their bellies were heavy with water which they had stored in their sleep. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs, and when the frogs laughed, the water ran all over

the earth to fill the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent’s wanderings – and that is how the lakes and rivers were formed.

Then the grass began to grow, and trees sprang up, and so life began on earth. All the animals, birds, and reptiles awoke and followed the Rainbow Serpent, the Mother of Life, across the land. They were happy on earth, and each lived and hunted for food with his own tribe. The kangaroo, wallaby, and emu tribes lived on the plains, the reptile tribes lived among the rocks and stones, and the bird tribes flew through the air and lived in the trees.

The Rainbow Serpent made laws that all were asked to obey, but some grew quarrelsome and were troublemakers. The Rainbow Serpent scolded them, saying, “Those who keep my laws I shall reward well, I shall give to them a human form. They and their children and their children’s children shall roam this earth forever. This shall be their land. Those who break my laws I shall punish. They shall be turned to stone, never to walk the earth again.”

So the law breakers were turned to stones, and became mountains and hills, to stand forever and watch over the tribes hunting for food at their feet. But those who kept her laws she turned into human form, and gave each of them his own totem of the animal, bird, or reptile whence they came. So the tribes knew themselves by their own totems: the kangaroo, the emu, the carpet snake, and many, many more. And in order that none should starve, she ruled that no man should eat of his own totem, but only of other totems. In this way there was food for all.

So the tribes lived together in the land given to them by the Mother of Life, the Rainbow Serpent, and they knew that the land would always be theirs, and that no one should ever take it from them.

Bark Painting of the Rainbow Serpent by Aboriginal Artist Jimmy Njiminjuma Courtesy of Songlines Aboriginal Art Gallery