From the author of Walkabout come ten of Australia's ancient aboriginal legends, authentically and elegantly retold. Here you can discover how Great Mother Snake created and peopled the world with plants and creatures, what makes Frogs croak, why Kangaroo has a pouch, and just what it is that makes Platypus so special. The illustrations are by the aboriginal artist and storyteller Francis Firebrace, whose distinctive, colourful work is known throughout Australia and beyond.
The Rainbow Serpent and the Story of Creation 8
How the Kangaroo got her Pouch 12
Why Frogs can only Croak 17
Why Brolgas Dance 22
Why the Platypus is such a Special Creature 26
The Mountain Rose 31
The Two Moths and the Flowers of the Mountain 36
How the Crocodile got its Scales 41
The Lizard-Man and the Creation of Uluru 45
The Butterflies and the Mystery of Death 50
About Aboriginal Australians 56
Glossary 57
Aboriginal Symbols and their meanings 60
The Rainbow Serpent and the Story of Creation
In the beginning, there was no life on the surface of the Earth. But beneath the surface the Great Mother Snake, the Rainbow Serpent, lay asleep.
She slept for a long, long time. Then one day she woke up, uncoiled herself, and crawled into the open. As she moved slowly over the flat, dry, empty land, she said to herself, “This isn’t much of a place.” So she used her magic to make rain.
It rained day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. And after a while the tracks left by the body of the Rainbow Serpent filled with water. This is how the long winding rivers, the billabongs and the waterholes came into being.
Sometimes, as the Rainbow Serpent moved forward, she pushed her nose into the Earth, and the soil piled up in front of her. This is how the mountains, the hills and the valleys came
into being.
In some places, the milk from her breasts soaked into the Earth and made it fertile. And here great rainforests sprang up, and all sorts of grasses, and carpets of bright-coloured flowers.
When the Rainbow Serpent had made the land to her liking, she went back inside the Earth and woke the creatures who,
like her, had been asleep there.
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