Rainbow Serpent

In the Dreaming all earth lay sleeping. Nothing moved. Nothing grew. One day the Rainbow Serpent awoke from her slumber and came out from
under the ground.

She travelled far and wide and eventually grew tired and curled up and slept. She left marks of her sleeping body and her winding tracks. Then she
returned to the place where she had first appeared, and called to the frogs, 'Come out!'

The frogs came out slowly because their bellies were heavy with water, which they had stored in their sleep. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their
stomachs and when the frogs laughed, water ran all over the earth to fill the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent's wanderings. This is how lakes and rivers
were formed.

With water, grass and trees sprang up. Also, all animals awoke and followed the Rainbow Serpent across the land. They were happy on earth, and
each lived and gathered food with his own tribe. Some animals lived in rocks, others on the plains and others in trees and in the air.

The Rainbow Serpent made laws that they all were to obey, but some became quarrelsome and made trouble. The Rainbow Serpent said, 'Those
who keep my laws will be rewarded; I shall give them human form. Those who break my laws will be punished and turned to stone, never to walk the
earth again.'

The lawbreakers became stone and turned to mountains and hills, but those who kept the laws were turned into human form. The Rainbow Serpent
gave each of them their own totem of the animal, bird or reptile from whence they came. The tribes knew themselves by their totems. Kangaroo,
emu, carpet snake, and many, many more ... So no one would starve the Rainbow Serpent ruled that no man should eat of his totem, but only of
other totems. This way there was food for everyone.

The tribes lived together on the land given to them by the Rainbow Serpent or Mother of Life and knew the land would always be theirs, and no one
should ever take it from them.
Baiame & the Rainbow Snake
We have been told, as our fathers were before us, that there was land, but it was a flat, barren plain. No animals ran there. No birds sang overhead, no trees or
bushes grew. No sound of water could be heard; nor was there any man or woman. The sun, the moon, and the stars slept beneath the earth. All the eternal
ancestors slept there, too, until at last they woke themselves out of their own eternity and broke through to the surface.

Baiame, or the Maker of Many Things as some call him, brought the Dreaming ancestors from under the ground and over the seas. With them, life came to the
barren, flat plain.

Some of the Dreaming ancestors looked like men or women. Others looked like the animals or creatures, which descended from them. But often the Dreaming
ancestors could become shape shifters. So the swordfish ancestor, for example, could look like a swordfish, or a man or woman.

As the Dreaming ancestors wandered over the land many adventures befell them. They met with other ancestors. Arguments often arose and the ancestors
would set out on their travels again.

They met strange creatures and fought many battles. Each time this happened the shape of the land would change. Hills arose from the earth, plants would grow.
Where the Barramundi-fish ancestor swam, rivers would then appear.

When a wrong was done, when people, ancestors or animals did what they should not, the Rainbow Snake would rush down upon them. He would then either
drown them, making bays and rivers, or swallow them. Then he would spit out their bones to form rocks and hills.

From the Dreaming Rainbow Snake came the feared ngaljod snake, still deadly and dangerous to those who are careless. But the Rainbow Snake is not just
vengeful. To some people the Rainbow Snake is an old woman, who in the Dreaming taught her children - humans - to talk and understand. She taught them to
dig for food, and what foods were safe to eat.

The sun, moon and stars also came to be in the Dreaming. One day emu ancestor and eagle ancestor were fighting. Eagle took one of emu's eggs and threw it
into the air. Soaring up, it burst into flames. Baiame fed the flame with wood. So the sun was made, and is made anew each day with more fresh wood.
Everything that is, was made in Dreaming. How animals and humans should look and behave was fixed for ever. The Dreaming ancestors taught their tribes,
animal and human, how to perform secret ceremonies. Then the ancestors disappeared into caves or water-holes, to remain underground, but ever present.
The Father of All Spirits & the Sun Mother
There was a time when everything was still. All the spirits of the earth were asleep - or almost all. The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he
awoke the Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth. The Father of All Spirits said to the Sun Mother, 'Mother,
I have work for you. Go down to the Earth and awake the sleeping spirits. Give them forms.'

The Sun Mother glided down to Earth, which was bare at the time, and began to walk in all directions, and everywhere she walked plants grew. After returning to
the field where she had begun her work, the Mother rested, well pleased with herself. The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into
the caves and wake the spirits.

This time she ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides. The bright light that radiated from her awoke the spirits, and after she left insects of all kinds flew
out of the caves. The Sun Mother sat down and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers. However, once again the Father urged her on.

The Sun Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her. Her heat melted the ice, and the rivers and streams of the world were created.
Then she created fish and small snakes, lizards and frogs. Next she awoke the spirits of the birds and animals, and they burst into the sunshine in a glorious array
of colours. Seeing this, the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Sun Mother's work.

She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and
became the sun.

The living creatures watched the sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the west. However, when she finally sank beneath the horizon they were
panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted them. All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed to them like
a lifetime, the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. Earth's children learned to expect her coming and going, and were no longer afraid.

At first the children lived together peacefully, but eventually envy crept into their hearts. They began to argue. The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her
home in the sky to mediate their bickering. She gave each creature the power to change their form to whatever they chose. However, she was not pleased with
the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; there were giant lizards and fish with blue tongues and feet. However, the oddest of the new
animals was an animal with a bill like a duck, teeth for chewing, a tail like a beaver, and the ability to lay eggs. It was called the platypus.

The Sun Mother looked down upon the earth and thought to herself that she must create new creatures, lest the Father of All Spirits be angered by what he now
saw. She gave birth to two children. The god was the Morning Star and the goddess was the moon. Two children were born to them and these she sent to earth.
They became our ancestors. She made them superior to the animals, because they had part of her mind and would never want to change their shape.
How the Sun Came to Be
Early in the Dreaming before the sun had begun to shine, there was a young woman, who decided to leave her group because the elders would not
allow her to marry the lover of her choice.

She went a long way from the tribe and hid in a dry, rocky area. There was very little food and water there and no safe place to sleep. The young
woman was hungry, thirsty and tired, but she would not give up and return to her people. Then she saw that a group of men from her tribe were
coming to take her back by force. She ran even further into the most barren part of the land.

Soon she was exhausted and bruised by branches and rock; she was near to death, but somehow she managed to keep going. Eventually, her
ancestor spirits became so concerned for the young woman that they lifted her gently away into the sky world, where she slept peacefully for a long
time.

When she awoke she found plenty of food and water and lit a campfire. She was all alone, but not afraid, and grateful that she was at last warm and
safe. She was as determined as ever to live alone forever, rather than return to her tribe, but as she looked down on them she saw that most of the
men and women were sad that she had gone, and her heart began to soften. After a few days she found she was feeling very homesick, but now she
belonged to the sky world and was unable to return home.

As she watched her people, she saw that they were cold. Being occupied with the chores of daily life, they could not sit by their camp fires and keep
warm as she now could.

The young woman decided to build up her camp fire and make it so big that it would warm all the people down below as they went about their day. So
all day long she built up her fire to give warmth to her people and as night came she let her fire die down as they were then able to sit by their own
camp fires.

When she saw how happy this made her people, she made up her mind to light her camp fire afresh each day. Soon her people began to look each
morning for her sky-world fire. They were very grateful for the warmth it gave them, and they called it 'The Sun'.