Aboriginal mythology Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the Aboriginal Australian languages, language groups across Australia in their Aboriginal c ...

(specifically:

Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...

), the Inapertwa are the simple, ancestral creatures with which the Numakulla modelled all life (plant, animals, birds) on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. From these they formed human beings. The "totems"inaccurate term.
/ref> of the Arrernte are named after individual Inapertwa formed into animals, then into humans.

References

* Leach, Maria, ed. (1984). ''Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend.'' New York: HarperCollins. * Roberts, Ainslie and Charles P. Mountford. (1973). ''The Dreamtime Book: Australian Aboriginal Myths.'' Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, p. 48.\Spencer, Sir Baldwin. (1904). ''Northern Tribes of Central Australia.'' London: Macmillan, p. 749. Australian Aboriginal legendary creatures Arrernte {{Australia-myth-stub