Aboriginal Australia Totemic Dreamtime
Glossary Terminology

 Kinship


In Aboriginal kinship stories, the rules for relationships between people are delineated. They provide the Dreaming Tracks and the law of the land. A typical Aboriginal family unit is large and extended.

Children are the concern of the entire community and their education and rearing is the responsibility of everyone, even though, some knowledge is secret and only revealed when the child is ready.

People are addressed by their skin name or kinship name which is shared by others of the same generation. Kinship is more important then individuality, and, the strength of the kinship system is a core element of all Aboriginal traditions.

 Message Sticks


Tribe members carried message sticks with them whenever they crossed the boundaries of another tribe. Engraved with sacred Dreaming symbols, these pieces of bark or wood identified the walker and served as an official request for permission to enter and pass through the belonging place of another tribe.

Under Aboriginal law to enter the belonging place of another tribe without their consent was trespassing, which courted hostility and could result in death.

 Danceman/Songman


All Aboriginal tribes tell stories about the Rainbow Serpent. Although some elements of  the Rainbow Serpent Story are known only to initiated members of the tribe, the illustration of the Rainbow Serpent has become public knowledge.

Rainbow Serpent Stories are Creation Stories so each of them is descriptive of the creation of the landscape where the storyteller lives. Rainbow Serpent artists often add clan symbols to the body of the Rainbow Serpent, symbolic of the connection between the clan and the land.

The Rainbow Serpent is linked with fertility, abundant plants and animals, protection, regenerating rains, watercourses, and peace. A female Rainbow Serpent, as the original mother creator, and, a male Rainbow Serpent, as the transformer of  the land, are the two Rainbow Serpents most commonly depicted in Aboriginal ceremonies, art, and oral traditions.

When the Rainbow Serpent is not respected or laws are transgressed, the Rainbow Serpent can act as a destructive force, bringing floods and storms.