Wollunqua, also written Wollunka or Wollunkua, is a

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

-god of

rain Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is res ...

and fertility in

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

of the

Warramunga The Warumungu (or Warramunga) are a group of Aboriginal Australians of the Northern Territory. Today, Warumungu are mainly concentrated in the region of Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. Warumungu language calls Alice Springs ''Warm Springs'', a ...

people of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

of Australia, a variation of the "

Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the Creator deity, creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many List of Australian Aboriginal group names, different Aborigina ...

" present in the

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

of many other

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

peoples. The snake, which emerged from a watering hole called Kadjinara in the

Murchison Ranges __NOTOC__ Iytwelepenty / Davenport Range, or Davenport Ranges National Park (Iytwellepenty), previously the Davenport Murchison National Park, is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia about south-east of the territorial capital ...

, is said to be many miles long. When speaking of the Wollunqua snake in public, the name ''urkulu nappaurinnia'' is used, because if they were to call it too often by its real name they would lose control and it would come out and devour them all. It can place the

rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

in the sky at will. Wollunqua is a totemic ancestor of the

people, specifically the Uluuru

moiety Moiety may refer to: __NOTOC__ Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is divided ** A division of society in the Iroquois societal structure in North America ** An Australian Aboriginal kinship group ** Native Ha ...

of the tribe. Amongst the Warramunga tribe, the snake totems are of considerable importance, the great majority of individuals of the Uluuru moiety belonging either to the Wollunqua, Thalaualla (black snake), or Tjudia ( deaf adder) totems; but at the same time the Wollunqua is undoubtedly the most important, and is regarded as the great father of all of the snakes. Wollunqua originated at a certain spot in the Wingara time, and wandered about over the country. He started from the watering hole Kadjinara in the upper part of a rocky gorge in the Murchison Range, and travelled thence away out to the west. A different tradition says that he stood up and tried to go down into the earth so as to return to Thapauerlu, but could not do so until he reached a place called Ununtumurra, where at last he succeeded, and, diving down, travelled back underground to Thapauerlu, where he has lived ever since. Setting out towards the east, he travelled at first underground, coming up at various spots where he performed

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil (secular) ceremoni ...

and left behind large numbers of spirit children, forming local totemic centres when he passed on. There are eleven spots which are especially associated with him in connection with his wanderings. The first is called Pitingari. Here, there is a water-hole where the old Wollunqua is reported to have come out of the earth and looked around. Still travelling on underground, the Wollunqua reached and halted at a place called Antipataringa. From Antipataringa the Wollunqua, still travelling underground, went on to Tjunguniari, and there he came out and walked about amongst the sand-hills, or rather, the head end of the body came out, for he was so long that although he had travelled very many miles away from his home at Kadjinara, his tail end still remained there. The last place on his wanderings, Ununtumurra, is especially important in the Wollonqua ceremonies.

References

Rainbow serpent deities Australian Aboriginal gods Fertility gods Sky and weather gods Legendary serpents Rain deities {{deity-stub