Once upon a time, the Earth lay flat and still. Nothing moved or grew on its surface. Below, there slept a serpent known as the Rainbow Serpent. One day, she awoke and made her way up to the surface. She travelled far and wide; as she moved, she left huge tracks behind her, forming mountains and valleys. Eventually, she grew tired and went back to sleep.
After she had had her rest, she called to the frogs: “Come out!” And so they did. But, because their bellies were full of water, they were very, very slow. The serpent tickled them, and the frogs started laughing. The water that was in their stomachs started flooding the serpent’s tracks. That’s how the first lakes and rivers were formed.
The water gave life to grass and trees, and the animals that lived in the rocks or on the plains woke up. They followed the Rainbow Serpent and were happy with their life on Earth. The serpent made laws that the animals had to obey. Those who didn’t like them began to argue. Then the serpent said “I will give human form to those who obey my laws. Others will be punished and turned to stone.”
And so it was. Those who made trouble were turned into tall mountains and steep hills, while the obedient ones were given human form. They were also given their own totem, to remind them of the animal form they were created from. When they gathered, the tribes knew themselves by their totems: kangaroo, emu, snakes and many, many more.
Another law that the Rainbow Serpent made was that no tribe should eat the animals of their own totem. That way, there was food for everyone. The tribes lived happily together on the land that the Rainbow Serpent had given them. They knew that the land would always be theirs, and that nobody should ever take it away from them.