The Rainbow Serpent is a powerful ancestral being for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. The characteristics of the Rainbow Serpent vary greatly from group to group and depending on the site. Often viewed as a female generative figure, the Rainbow Serpent can sometimes also be male. She has both powers of creation and destruction and is strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons, and the colors seen in rainbows, which arc across the sky like a giant serpent. In Northern Australia, the Rainbow Serpent is said to be active during the wet season.
Known as Ngalyod in the Kuninjku language of western central Arnhem Land, the Rainbow Serpent is mostly associated with bodies of water such as billabongs, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls, where she resides. Therefore, she is responsible for the production of most water plants, such as water lilies, water vines, algae, and palms, which grow near water. The roar of waterfalls in the escarpment country is said to be her voice. Large holes in stony banks of rivers and cliff faces are said to be her tracks. She is held in awe because of her apparent ability to renew her life by shedding her skin and emerging anew.
Aboriginal creation stories about the Rainbow Serpent often describe her as a fearful creature that swallows humans, only to regurgitate them, transformed by her blood. The white ochre used by artists to create the brilliant white paint for bark paintings, body decoration, and rock art in the past, is said to be the faeces of the Rainbow Serpent.
Aboriginal people today respect and care for sacred sites where the Rainbow Serpent is said to reside. Certain activities are forbidden at these places for fear that the wrath of the great snake will cause sickness, accidents, and even tempests. However, there are many Rainbow Serpent sites today where people may enter to hunt, fish, or swim. Ngalyod has been the subject of art and ceremony for possibly thousands of years.
Milmligkan, where Ngalyod is depicted in this painting, is an example of a sacred site also used as a hunting camp. It is a sacred billabong and an important resting place for Ngalyod, not far from Kurrurldal. Ngalyod's association with water plants is represented in this painting by two water lily leaves in white ochre. Sometimes, Ngalyod is depicted as pregnant and referred to in Kunwinjku as Wadiyal.
