page_title: Rainbow Serpent
section_title: Names in different cultures
hierarchical_section_title: Rainbow Serpent / Names in different cultures
caption_attribution_description: English: Myndie as drawn by an Aboriginal, and it tallies with pictures made by men of other tribes. Myndie is a mythological serpent of the Aborigines of Victoria. (As reproduced as figure 246, p. 446 in "The Aborigines of Victoria")
context_page_description: The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as a creator god, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages, and a common motif in the art and religion of Aboriginal Australia. Not all of the myths of the ancestral being link a rainbow with the snake and not all describe the being as a snake, but there is usually a link with water or rain. Some scholars have suggested that the link between the two suggests the cycle of the seasons, for example blue, red, yellow and orange, and the importance of water in human life. When the rainbow is seen in the sky, it is said to be the Rainbow Serpent moving from one waterhole to another and the divine concept explained why some waterholes never dried up when drought struck.
  There are many names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal mythology. It is viewed as a giver of life through its association with water, but can be a destructive force if angry. The Rainbow Serpent is one of the most common and well-known Aboriginal stories and is of great importance to Aboriginal society.
context_section_description: The Rainbow Serpent is known by different names by the many different Aboriginal sub-cultures.  The Rainbow Serpent (or Serpents if there are more than one) is known as Borlung by the Miali, Dhakkan (or Takkan) by the Kuli, Kajura by the Ingarda, Goorialla by the Lardil people, Kunmanggur by the Murinbata, Ngalyod by the Kunwinjku, Numereji by the Kakadu, Taipan by the Wikmunkan, Tulloun by the Mitakoodi, Wagyl by the Noongar, Wanamangura by the Talainji, and Witij/Wititj by the Yolngu.  Other names include Bolung, Galeru,  Julunggul, Kanmare, Langal,  Myndie, Muit, Ungur, Wollunqua,  Wonambi,  Wonungar,  Worombi,  Yero, Yingarna,  and Yurlungur.
  The Dictionary of World Mythology (1997) cites Yurlungur as the Murngin (Yolngu) name for a great copper python (perhaps copperhead) who is "the great father", the "rainbow serpent."
caption: Myndie c. 1878
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