The Rainbow Serpent - Aboriginal Australian

My name is Bindi, and I live where the red earth meets the endless sky. I want to share a story my grandmother whispered to me under the stars, a story from the Dreamtime, the time before time. This is the story of that magnificent beginning, the story of the Rainbow Serpent. Long ago, the world was flat, still, and grey, like a canvas waiting for its first splash of paint. Nothing moved, nothing grew, and a deep silence covered everything because there was no wind to whistle or water to babble. Beneath the cool, hard crust of the earth, all the animal spirits—the kangaroo, the emu, and the kookaburra—were sleeping, dreaming of the day they would finally awaken. It was a patient world, but it was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, something to bring it color, shape, and life. Can you imagine a world with no sound and no rivers? That is where our story begins, in the great quiet, right before the world as we know it was born from a colorful dream.

One day, deep beneath the earth where the crystals grow, a great and ancient power stirred. The Rainbow Serpent, immense and shimmering with every color you can possibly imagine, began to uncoil. With a mighty push, she broke through the surface of the grey land. As she traveled, her powerful body became the artist of the world. Where she pushed the earth upward with her snout, magnificent mountains rose to touch the clouds. Where she coiled and rested for a moment, she created deep, winding valleys and gentle hollows perfect for holding secrets. My grandmother says her scales shone like mother-of-pearl, a moving, living rainbow against the dull, sleepy earth. As she journeyed, something magical happened. Life-giving water, the source of everything, trickled from her iridescent body and filled the deep tracks she made. These became the winding rivers that snake across the land, the calm billabongs that reflect the sky, and the quiet waterholes where animals gather. The sleeping animal spirits felt the vibrations of her grand journey and the cool touch of her water. One by one, they woke up, stretched, and came out from the earth, following her path to drink from the fresh, new rivers she had made.

But the Rainbow Serpent didn't just shape the land and wake the animals; she also shaped the way we live. When she saw the first people, my ancestors, blinking in the new light, she knew they needed guidance. She taught them the most important rules, the sacred laws for living together and caring for the beautiful land she had created. My grandmother explained that these laws were simple but powerful: be fair to one another, respect your family and elders, and protect the animals and the precious water that gives life to all. She showed them which berries were sweet and which roots were nourishing. She pointed out which caves offered the best shelter from the hot sun. The Serpent was a powerful spirit, a true guardian. If the people followed her laws and took good care of the land, she would reward them with gentle, soaking rain to make the plants grow and keep the rivers full and happy. But she also taught them about consequences. If they were greedy or cruel, she could bring great, roaring floods that washed everything away, or a long, sorrowful drought that dried up the rivers and made the red earth crack with thirst.

When her great work of creation was finally finished, the Rainbow Serpent coiled herself into one of the deepest, clearest waterholes she had made, where she rests even today. But she never truly left us. Her spirit is still here, a silent guardian watching over the land and its people. My grandmother always tells me, "Bindi, look to the sky after it rains." That beautiful, shimmering arc of color you see stretching from one side of the earth to the other is her, the Rainbow Serpent, reminding us of her incredible journey and her promise to protect the life she created. This story has been passed down for thousands of years, told around crackling campfires and painted on sacred rocks in hidden caves. It inspires our art, our songs, and our dances. The story of the Rainbow Serpent is more than just a tale; it teaches us that the land is alive, that water is a precious gift, and that we are all connected in a story that began in the magical Dreamtime and continues with us today.