I “Denigrated” Waugul the Rainbow Snake

I’ve faced a bit of criticism in my last video for denigrating Waugul, the Rainbow Serpent, important to some Aboriginal people. My intention wasn’t to denigrate the snake, but to criticise the human-created law that potentially allows people to be sent to jail for building bridges on their property that upset that snake. One such comment that kind of sums it up: “Why is it okay to denigrate the Rainbow Serpent, but you won’t do the same with God or Allah? Catholics build cemeteries to house their dead? You wouldn’t dare accept somebody bulldozing through that, would you? How is destroying sacred Aboriginal sites any different?”

I’ll address these concerns in two parts. First, the yellow part: Why is it okay to denigrate the Rainbow Serpent, but not other deities? Okay, so first of all, my intention wasn’t to denigrate the Rainbow Serpent, but rather the stupid law that allows people to potentially send other people to jail because they apparently upset the Rainbow Serpent. Unless there is proof that the serpent is real, and that said serpent is upset, then I can’t believe that this case hasn’t been thrown out of court already. Not to mention that the ABC article that I quoted referred to the rainbow serpent as ‘mythology’. That said, the ABC aren’t the definitive source of religious expertise, so I am willing to accept that God, Allah, and the Rainbow Serpent are all essentially theologically equivalent. That is, they are all considered to be a higher power that created this world. However, if for example, Catholics, or whoever, managed to implement a law in Australia that allows them to say that somebody who builds a bridge on their private land has upset God and is taken to court over it potentially facing jail time, then I would equally denigrate that rule. I would call it out for being complete BS, which is exactly what is happening to this poor real estate agent, except substitute God for Waugul. I stick to my original assessment – It’s complete BS!

The second part is to do with the destruction of graveyards. The comment states: “Catholics build cemeteries to house their dead. You wouldn’t dare accept somebody bulldozing through that, would you? How is destroying sacred Aboriginal sites any different?” Okay, so first of all, I’m not condoning the destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites – of course not. Secondly, obviously it’s not just Catholics who bury their dead. I mean, many different religions and cultures do the same. I would argue that even non-religious people participate in this practice. But I get the point of the comment, many people would be outraged if we started bulldozing a graveyard without consequence. Why aren’t we equally outraged when people build bridges over the home of the Rainbow Serpent? Well I would simply state that a graveyard is a defined location. We all know where the local graveyard is, or how to identify one. It’s obvious. There’s no debate about whether a particular location is considered a cemetery or not. But a random creek on somebody’s property, how can anybody know that it’s a resting place for a giant mythological snake? It would be akin to a Catholic saying, “You just dug a well in your property. That’s where God keeps his favourite souls”. But not only are you unaware of this alleged “fact”, you’re charged with an offence, forced to attend court, and potentially lose 9 months of your life in prison. It seems absurd, and it is absurd. You can’t just claim some place is sacred after the fact. If it’s sacred, you need to make it known that it’s scared. You need to put up signs to say as such, exactly like we do for cemeteries. You can’t just go around looking for people who have accidentally dug up earth, or built bridges, or damage certain natural objects, and then claim they’ve committed some grave sin and take them to court over it costing them a fortune and causing them untold mental anguish. It’s simply not fair to behave in such a way. This will only result in people becoming annoyed and frustrated with you. It certainly won’t result in people respecting your culture.

Look, you can believe in what you want, freedom of religion and all that, but when your supernatural belief is being used to jail people, I am never going to be on your side.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn