Once upon a time, there were no computers, no books, no pens, no paper. There was no way to hold on to history except by remembering it. There was no way to pass history down except by telling it, over and over. The Aboriginal people of Australia began doing that thirty thousand years ago, when they first came to Australia from Asia.
At this dawning of time, the spirit ancestors of the Aboriginal people lived on earth, and they had the characteristics of both animals and people. They dreamed a long dream. And in that dreaming, the creatures of the earth came to be as we know them now.
In that time, there was not yet death. It was the fault of the first humans that death was let into the world, for the moon came down to the earth and said to them, “If you carry my pets across the river, you will rise again to life after you have died, and so live forever.” But the humans refused. They were afraid of the moon’s pets, which were all deadly snakes. So the moon said, “Silly humans! Now, when you die, you will stay dead. And I will always send you poisonous snakes, to remind you that you disobeyed me.”
One of those snakes was the mangrove snake. One day, he sat complaining to his friend, the whip snake. “Yes, I am very poisonous. But I am so slow that the humans are always chasing me, and I must bite them when they catch me. It is quite exhausting.”
The whip snake, who was very fast but perfectly harmless, said, “Let me have your poison teeth, so the humans won’t hate you anymore. And since I am too fast to catch, I won’t need to bite them.”
The mangrove snake agreed. And ever since, he’s been only poisonous enough to kill his food, and humans do not bother him.
Some people say that it’s a snake’s fault that death came into the world. The locust used to go into the ground when he died, and then be reborn with a shiny new skin. But one day, a python became jealous, and broke the locust’s back.
So now, only snakes are able to change their skin. And when the locust goes into the ground, he must stay there. If it were not for jealousy, all creatures would be reborn in new, fresh skins.
The echidna used to be as smooth as a frog. But he was punished for luring young men to his campfire and eating them, instead of hunting for food like everyone else. The angry tribespeople surrounded the echidna and threw spears into him, until he was covered with them.
The echidna was very good friends with the spider who makes his home under the ground. So he knocked on the spider’s trapdoor until the spider let him in.
But the echidna still has a back full of spears, and to this day he crawls underground when he feels he is in danger.
The kangaroo used to run on four legs. But one day, he spied on a sacred gathering where humans were dancing. The music got into his blood, and after a while he could not help but get up on his hind legs and join in. The medicine man bewitched the kangaroo, so that he would always hop on his hind legs – and initiated him into the tribe, so he would forever be the people’s brother.
One story tells of a great gathering of many tribes: Dog, Snake, Spider and many more. The Dog people were disrespectful, and finally the Great Creator lost patience with them. He told them, “Since you barked and howled through my sacred rites, you can bark and howl forever, but never again shall you say a word.” Then, they were struck dumb, and turned into dingoes.
At the gathering, a rat stole a duck to be his bride. And when she laid eggs, her children had the fur of the rat and the beaks and webbed feet of the duck. They were the first platypuses. The poor mother duck was banished for bearing such strange children, and she died of a broken heart.
But you can see her children’s descendants in any creek in Australia today.
At the same gathering, there was a widow who was denied water and died. But with her dying breath, she cursed the tribes, and they all turned into the animals whose names they bore – and remain so today.
This is the end of the voyage into dreamtime.
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