Aboriginal Dreamtime Story

How was the world created? How did humans evolve? Click to read Aboriginal story of creation!

Jak byl stvořen svět? Jak se vyvinuli lidé? Klikni a přečti si příběh stvoření, který si vyprávěli Aboriginci!

1The Rainbow Serpent

In the Dreamtime all earth lay sleeping. Nothing moved. Nothing grew. One day the Rainbow Serpent* awoke from her sleep and came out from under the ground. She travelled far and finally became tired and curled up* and slept. She left marks* of her sleeping body and her tracks. Then she returned* to the place where she had first appeared, and called to the frogs, “Come out!”

The frogs came out slow because their bellies* were heavy with water, which they had stored* in their sleep. The Rainbow serpent tickled* their stomachs and when the frogs laughed, water ran all over the earth to fill the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent. This is how lakes and rivers were formed.

With water, grass and trees grew. Also all animals awoke and followed the Rainbow Serpent across the land. They were happy on earth and each lived and gathered food with his own tribe. Some animals live in rocks, others on the plains* and others in trees and in the air.

The Rainbow Serpent made laws* that they all were to obey, but some animals made trouble. The Rainbow Serpent said,” Those who keep my laws will be rewarded*; I shall give them human form. Those who break my laws will be punished* and turned to stone and they will never walk the earth again.

The lawbreakers became stone and turned to mountains and hills, but those who kept the laws were turned into human form. The Rainbow Serpent gave each of them their own totem of the animal, bird or reptile from where they came. The tribes knew themselves by their totems: kangaroo, emu, carpet snake, and many, many more. So no one would starve, the Rainbow Serpent ruled that no man will eat of his totem, but only of other totems. This way there was food for everyone.

The tribes* lived together on the land given to them by the Rainbow Serpent or Mother of Life and knew the land would always be theirs, and no one will ever take it from them.

*Vocabulary (in alphabetical order):

belly /ˈbeli/ břicho

curl up /kɜːl ʌp/ stočit se

law /lɔː/ pravidlo, zákon

mark /mɑːk/ stopa

plain /pleɪn/ planina

punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/ potrestat

return /riˈtɜːn/ vrátit se

reward /riˈwɔːd/ odměnit

serpent /ˈsɜːpənt / had

store /stɔː/ uložit

tickle /ˈtɪkəl/ lechtat

tribe /traɪb/ kmen

2Biblical story of creation

You can compary the story of the Rainbow Serpent with it.

Source:
1. Dreamtime Stories - the Rainbow Serpent. In: Australia Lesson Activities - Literacy: Literacy lessons sent from the Outback by the Overland Australia team of Expedition 360 for use by classrooms worldwide free of charge. [online]. 2001 [cit. 2017-10-20]. Dostupné z: http://www.expedition360.com/australia_lessons_literacy/2001/09/dreamtime_stories_the_rainbow.html

2. SMITH, Leah a Wendinne BUSS. The 7 Days of Creation: GCED: Bible story for young children. In: Youtube [online]. 2012 [cit. 2017-10-20]. Dostupné z: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_Nbwc0LVo&feature=youtu.be

* The pictures are borrowed from publically available sources. All links to the picture sources are included in the bibliography of the diploma thesis. 
** The vocabulary translations and transcriptions are borrowed from Oxford studijní slovník: výkladový slovník angličtiny s českým překladem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-19-430655-3.