Rainbow Serpent (deity)

The Rainbow Serpent is a popular deity found in the mythologies of many aboriginal peoples across Australia. The Rainbow Serpent is often portrayed as a creator god responsible for bringing life and life-giving water to the world. It can take the shape of both a rainbow and a great snake, living either under the ground or in the clouds as a storm is passing. Aboriginal legend says that when a rainbow is seen in the sky, it is merely the serpent traveling from one water hole to another. While the Rainbow Serpent pervades aboriginal folklore, specific stories of the deity vary by tribe and region. The serpent is known by many names and can be either male or female. Some groups see the serpent as a protector figure, others as a fertility goddess, and others as a spirit who must be appeased to prevent floods and drought.

Background

Scientists estimate the first humans migrated to the continent of Australia between forty thousand and seventy thousand years ago. The aboriginal population was believed to have been between 315,000 and 1 million when the first British explorers arrived in 1788. The aboriginal peoples were not one unified group but rather a diverse population speaking between 350 and 750 languages and dialects. In the twenty-first century, the number of aboriginal languages had dropped below 200, with only about 20 of these not considered highly endangered.

As is the case with most contact between indigenous peoples and European colonizers, conflict and disease began to take a toll on the native population. By 1900, it is estimated that the aboriginal population dropped by about 90 percent. During the mid-twentieth century, government reforms began to afford Australia’s aboriginals better treatment, allowing the population to experience a significant rebound. According to government estimates, the aboriginal population in 2016 was at 798,400. More than 250,000 lived in Australia’s Northern Territory, with a majority of those residing in Arnhem Land, a remote region in the northeastern section of the territory. Another 221,000 aboriginal peoples lived in Queensland, in northeastern Australia.

Overview

Aboriginal beliefs hold that world was created by the great ancestral spirits in a mystical beginning known as Dreamtime. Dreamtime is a period that exists outside of the flow of time and encompasses the past, present, and future. The world was a formless expanse until the ancestral spirits created the mountains, deserts, water holes, animals, plants, and humans to populate the land. The spirits taught the people language. They also taught them how to hunt and fish and how to perform sacred rituals. After a time, the spirits disappeared from the world, retreating to live in trees, rocks, or water holes and in the sky as stars.

Many stories claim the ancestral spirits resembled humans who were able to change shapes and take on the form of animals. Some aboriginals in Arnhem Land believed the ancestral spirits were large snakes. The concept of the Rainbow Serpent likely grew from the myths of aboriginal Dreamtime. Accounts of the Rainbow Serpent are common in aboriginal belief systems across Australia. However, the specifics of the myths are as diverse as the individual groups in which they originated.

One of the most widespread stories says that in the formless Dreamtime, the Rainbow Serpent sleeps below the ground with all the world’s animals in her stomach. When the serpent awakes, she travels across the land, leaving deep tracks and gorges in the earth as she passes. After a time, the serpent calls out to the frogs inside her, and they awaken from their sleep. The frogs’ stomachs are filled with water, so the serpent tickles them to make the water spill out and fill the tracks and holes she made. This was how the lakes and rivers were created. When grass and plants begin to grow, the serpent calls upon the rest of the animals to come forth. The animals spread out across the earth, but soon begin to argue and disobey the laws the serpent establishes. The Rainbow Serpent rewards those who obey her laws by granting them human form. Those who disobey her are turned to stone and become the hills and mountains. In another myth, the serpent is seen as a male, and he creates the mountains, rivers, and canyons of Australia as he travels the land searching for members of his own tribe.

Depending on the legend, the serpent has been portrayed in legends as male, female, or an asexual being. Almost all myths tell of the serpent bringing water to the dry land, either by calling rain down from the heavens or bringing water up from beneath the earth. Many myths picture the serpent as having the body of a snake with the head of a kangaroo and the tail of a crocodile.

The Rainbow Serpent is believed to travel from one body of water to another in the form of a rainbow in the sky. Aboriginal legends say this is why some water holes do not dry up, even in times of drought. In parts of Arnhem Land, the serpent is believed to leave spirit-children behind in water holes to help women who bathe in the water become pregnant. Many people view the serpent as the protector of water and deserving of great respect from those who approach its home. Some aboriginals perform rituals as they near a water hole, calling out their intentions and telling the serpent they mean no harm. If the Rainbow Serpent is angered, legend says it can create storms, floods, or drought to punish those who cause it offense.

The serpent is known by many names among the aboriginal peoples. However, British anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown coined the term Rainbow Serpent in the early twentieth century. Painted images of the serpent have been found on rock formations dating back between four thousand and six thousand years, suggesting the Rainbow Serpent could be the oldest religious figure in human history. Some scientists believe images of the serpent were inspired by an elongated seahorse-like ocean creature called the ribboned pipefish. They theorize that melting ice from the last Ice Age caused a rise in sea levels, which flooded the coastal areas of Australia. Aboriginal peoples who lived inland would have encountered the strange fish and may have used it as a model for the Rainbow Serpent.

Bibliography

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