![]() ![]() The Kunwinjku also possess Dreaming stories about Yingarna’s child, Ngalyod, who is associated with the “potentially destructive power of the storms and the plenty of the wet seasons”. In one of many stories she was said to be the first Rainbow Serpent, and all of creation burst from her body. Is Yingarna, whose story is told by Kunwinjku-speaking people from Just one of the many Rainbow Serpents who travelled the land The Rainbow Serpent is associated with water and the rainbow. Is also an important bridge between the water and the sky, the sky yetĪnother resting place for the Rainbow Serpent. Water, an essential resource, and the rainbow, whose shimmering lightĪnd curved form reflects the scales and body of the snake. Of its guises and geographies the Rainbow Serpent is associated with It is also strongly connected with fertility, both human and ecological. It features as an important creator figure, guardian of sacred places, bringer of monsoonal rains and storms, bestower of powers upon healers and rainmakers, or a dangerous creature that punishes people who violate laws, or dwells in waterholes threatening to swallow unwary passers-by, to name just a few incarnations. The most widely known Ancestral Being is the Rainbow Serpent, or Rainbow Snake, the English names for the figure that appears in the Dreamings of many different Aboriginal language groups across the continent. Rainbow Serpent mural created by teacher Jenny Noble and the children of Rosebank School, New South Wales, 2000. Towards the end of the 20th century, Aboriginal culture was increasingly being called upon to provide a symbol of nation – representing Australia as a whole – by groups of non-Indigenous Australians who believed it offered a depth and richness of symbolic meaning that more conventional symbols had lost (or perhaps had never had). Thus Aboriginal cultures are necessarily rich with symbolism. Some Aboriginal people maintain their connection to these powerful beings by continuing to perform the songs and dances they gave them, and marking their bodies and objects with their sacred designs. These ancestors are not relegated to the past, for their presence is still felt at sacred sites, and they are still responsible for providing the resources that sustain the clan. ![]() Their experiences, and often the consequences of their actions, formed the basis for Aboriginal kinship systems, laws, ways of caring for Country and connecting to land. Each clan possessed numerous Dreaming stories, depicting how the land was traversed and marked by the Ancestral Beings, who created land-forms, people, animals, plants and celestial stars. Prior to colonisation there were approximately 250 different Aboriginal languages spoken by some 500 clans throughout Australia.
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