Yingarna- Aboriginal Australian PrimordialPrimordial"Creation Mother"

The First Serpent

In the Dreamtime of the Kunwinjku people, Yingarna was the first Rainbow Serpent, the primordial being from whose body all of creation burst forth. She moved across western Arnhem Land in serpentine form, and her passage through the landscape was itself an act of creation. The paths she carved became waterways and gorges. The places where she rested became billabongs and deep pools. She could take different forms, appearing as a woman or as a serpent, and her Dreaming track connects the sacred sites she made across Kunwinjku country.

Her resting places are treated with caution. The power she carried could create and destroy in equal measure, and to disturb the sites where she paused is to risk unleashing something older than the world's present shape. Yingarna gave birth to Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent who still dwells in the deep waterholes of Arnhem Land. Ngalyod brings the storms and rains of the wet season that replenish the land, but punishes those who transgress sacred law.

The Rock at Injalak

At Injalak Hill near Gunbalanya, paintings of Yingarna cover the rock shelters. George Chaloupka documented this layered artistic tradition spanning thousands of years. The images show her in both human and serpentine form. The paintings are maintained by local communities as part of their ceremonial responsibilities, ensuring the creative power Yingarna deposited in the landscape continues to be renewed.