Despite the staggering array of belief systems across Australia, one Character makers more than one appearance: the Rainbow Serpent. The stories – and names – attributed to her vary, but she is generally stories, she ends up devouring people but also bringing traditions and customs to the people of Australia. The rainbow serpent is used as a creation story, as well as an explanation for laws, customs and the totemic tribal culture across Australia.
During Dreamtime, at the very dawn of time, as the serpent travelled across the length and breadth of valleys, rivers and creeks. Eventually, she called forward the frogs, which emerged from the earth with heavy bellies full of water. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs and the water poured out across the world, filling the river and lakes. From this other life – both birds and other animals then followed the Rainbow Serpent as she moved across the land, with each animal helping to retain the ecological balance by hunting only for its own kind.
The serpent brought in laws and decreed that those who disobeyed them were to remain in their animal form, while those who were well behaved were upgraded to human form. Each tribe was given a totem of the animal from which they came as their identifying icon and to remind them to their origins. They were permitted to eat everything except their ancestral animal, which meant there would be enough food for everyone- a useful tenet in a land where resources are so scarce.
