Australian Aboriginal mythology

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The indigenous peoples of Australia can be classified into hundreds of language groups and clans. For this reason it is incorrect to classify any attribute as universal to them as a whole. However, almost all the belief systems found seem to be what can be considered a polytheistic, animistic religion. Many similarities between the groups may be seen:

The Australian Aboriginal culture is based on nature in every aspect. Most of their mythological heroes are animals common in Australia, the most prominent being the Rainbow Serpent.
Another similarity is the so-called "Dreamtime". It is often thought of as the time in which the world was created, but correctly describes the process of the world being called into being. Another general explanation can be seen in anthropologist Max Charlesworth's reference to the Indigenous Australian "Dreamtime" as the ability to 'see with eternal vision' Max Charlesworth, 'Introduction' in Religion In Aboriginal Australia: An Anthology, ed. by Max Charlesworth, Howard Morphy, Diane Bell and Kenneth Maddock, University of Queensland Press, Queensland, Australia, 1984..
Walkabout is a word which has been coined to describe the pilgrimages that Aboriginal people must make to their "sacred places to conduct ceremonies. Walkabout is the enactment of great journeys, or sections of them, that the 'ancestral beings' took long ago in the "Dreamtime".

Figures and elements

Alchera (myth)
Alcheringa - term used by the Australian Aborigine for the Dreamtime
Altjira - the sky god of the Aranda.
Anjea - a fertility goddess
Bagadjimbiri - two brothers and creator gods
Bahloo - the moon goddess
Baiame - the ancestor and patron god of the Kamilaroi.
Bamapana - a trickster hero who causes discord (Murngin people)
Banaitja - a creator god
Beralku - island of the dead
Bobbi-Bobbi - a giant snake that lived in the heavens, similar to the Rainbow Serpent.
Brolga
Bunbulama - rain goddess
Bunjil - supreme god of the Kulin, sometimes manifests as an eagle (in Koori cultures - Wauthaurong, Wuradjuri).
Bunyip - a mythical creature said to lurk in billabongs.
Daramulum - sky and weather god, patron of shamans, and a lunar deity. (Wiradhuri and Kamilaroi)
Dhakhan - the ancestral god of the Kabi
Dilga - goddess of fertility and growth
Djanggawul - three siblings, two female and one male, who created the landscape of Australia and covered it with flora.
Djunkgao - a group of sisters who are associated with floods and ocean currents
Dreamtime - central, unifying theme in Aboriginal culture.
Eingana - a creator goddess and the mother of all water, animals, and humans
Erathipa - a boulder that has the shape of a pregnant woman
Galeru - a rainbow snake who swallowed the Djanggawul
Gidja - moon god, creator of women
Gnowee - a solar goddess who lived on Earth before there was a sun
Inapertwa - simple creatures with which the Numakulla formed created all life on Earth. (Aranda)
I'wai - I'wai is the culture hero of the Koko Y'ao.
Jar'Edo Wens - a god of earthly knowledge and physical might
Julana - a lecherous god who surprises women by burrowing beneath the sand
Julunggul - a rainbow serpent and fertility goddess
Kalseru
Karora - a creator god
Kidili - an ancient moon-man who attempted to rape some of the first women on Earth (Mandjindja)
Kondole - a mean and rude man who became a whale
Kunapipi - mother goddess and the patron deity of many heroes
Kutjara
Makara - the seven sisters who eventually became the Pleiades
Mamaragan - a lightning god who speaks with thunder as his voice.
Mamu
Mangar-kunjer-kunja - a lizard god who created humans.
Mar'rallang - name shared by two twin sisters
Mimi - fairy-like beings of Arnhem Land
Minawara - ancestors of the Nambutji
Mokoi - an evil spirit who killed sorcerers who used black magic.
Mura-mura - another word for Dreamtime
Nargun - A female monster who abducts children
Ngariman - a cat-man who killed the Bagadjimbiri
Nogomain - a god who gives spirit children to mortal parents
Puckowe - Grandmother spirit who lives in the sky
Pundjel - a creator god who invented religious rites.
Rainbow serpent - the inhabitant of permanent waterholes and is in control of water; creator spirit.
Tjilpa - ancestor of the cat-people.
Tjinimin - ancestor of the Australian peoples
Ulanji - a snake-ancestor of the Binbinga.
Ungud - a snake god who is sometimes male and sometimes female
Wagyl - a snakelike creature who created the waterways in and around the south-west of Western Australia
Wahwee
Walo - a sun goddess
Waramurungundi - the first woman (Gunwinggu)
Wati-kutjara - lizard men
Wawalag - pair of sisters who were daughters of Djanggawul
Wollunqua - a snake-god of rain and fertility
Wondjina - cloud and rain spirits
Wuluwaid - a rain god
Wuragag - first man (Gunwinggu)
Wuriupranili - solar goddess who carries a torch that is the sun.
Wurrunna - a culture hero.
Yara-ma-yha-who - a small, vampiric man or humanoid monster,
Yowie - a giant beast, resembling a cross between a lizard and an ant.
Yhi - a goddess of light and creation, and a solar deity
Yohrmum
Yurlungur - a copper snake

References

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