Rainbow Serpent

The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity, often a creator god, in the mythology and a common motif in the art of Aboriginal Australia. It is named for the obvious identification between the shape of a rainbow and the shape of a snake. Some scholars believe that the link between snake and rainbow suggests the cycle of the seasons and the importance of water in human life. 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. There are innumerable names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal traditions. It 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, very important to their society. The Rainbow Serpent is one of the oldest continuing religious beliefs in the world and continues to be a cultural influence today.

The Rainbow Serpent is known by different names by different Aboriginal cultures. The Rainbow Serpent (or Serpents if there are more than one) is known as Borlung by the Miali,Dhakkan (or Takkan) by the Kuli,Kajura by the Ingarda,Goorialla by the Lardil people,Kunmanggur by the Murinbata,Ngalyod by the Gunwinggu,Numereji by the Kakadu,Taipan by the Wikmunkan,Tulloun by the Mitakoodi,Wagyl by the Noongar,Wanamangura by the Talainji, and Witij by the Yolngu. Other names include Bolung,Galeru,Julunggul,Kanmare,Langal,Myndie,Muit,Ungur,Wollunqua,Wonambi,Wonungar,Worombi,Yero,Yingarna, and Yurlunggur.

Though the concept of the Rainbow Serpent has existed for a long time in Aboriginal Australian cultures, it was introduced to the wider world through the work of anthropologists. 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". 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. Similarly, it has 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. 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.

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