The Story
In the beginning, the earth was flat and silent, and nothing moved. There were no rivers, no hills, no trees. Everything was smooth and grey and sleeping.
Deep beneath the ground, the Rainbow Serpent also slept. She was immense and beautiful — her scales shimmered with every colour of the sky at once: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. She had been sleeping since before anyone could remember.
One day, she stirred.
She stretched her great length and began to push upward through the earth. Where she moved, the ground buckled and rose into mountains. Where she rested, the earth curved into valleys. She turned and twisted across the land, her body carving deep channels in the ground, and when the rains came, they filled those channels and became rivers.
She called out to the frogs who lay curled asleep underground. "Wake up, little ones! The world is ready."
The frogs awoke slowly. Their bellies were full of water from the rains of long ago. The Rainbow Serpent tickled them gently, and the frogs laughed and laughed, and all the water spilled from their mouths and ran into the rivers and filled them to the banks.
Then the grasses grew, and the trees grew, and the flowers opened, and insects came buzzing into the light.
The Rainbow Serpent watched and was pleased. She made rules for this new world: be kind, share with others, care for the land that has given you life. She told all the creatures that the world belonged to everyone, and that those who lived in peace would be welcome to stay in its beauty.
Those who were generous and gentle — she turned into the shapes of the animals and birds who still live today.
Those who were cruel or selfish learned hard lessons.
And the Rainbow Serpent herself? She is still there. When rain falls from a storm cloud and the sun breaks through, you can see her arching across the sky — brilliant and alive — watching over the land she shaped with her own dreaming body.