Creation

Every culture has a creation story. Aboriginal people believe that they have been here from the time of the first ancestors or Nayuhyunggi (in the Gundjeihmi language) when landscapes formed, human beings transformed themselves into animals and sacred places set themselves into the landscape.

Creation ancestors came in many forms. The Rainbow Snake (Almudj/Alyod in Gundjeihmi and Bolung in Jawoyn) is a spiritual being of great significance in Aboriginal culture in Kakadu. Other ancestral beings include Bula (in the Jawoyn language), Namarrgon (Lightning Man), Warramurrungundji (Earth Mother) and

Figure 1 – Location of Kakadu National Park

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others. The landscape and its features were left by the Creation Ancestors. They instituted and created ceremonies, rules to live by, laws, plants, animals and people, then they turned into djang (dreaming places and their spiritual essence). They taught Aboriginal people how to live with the land. From then on Aboriginal people became keepers of their country.

‘We Aboriginal people have obligations to care for our country, to look after djang, to communicate with our ancestors when on country and to teach all of this to the next generations.’ (combined statement from the Aboriginal members of the Kakadu Board of Management)