thumb|300px|Australian Aboriginal rock painting of the "Rainbow Serpent".
The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator god,
There are many names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal mythology, which includes the worldview commonly referred to as The Dreaming. The serpent is viewed as a giver of life through its association with water, but can be a destructive force if angry. The Rainbow Serpent is one of the most common and well-known Aboriginal stories and is of great importance to Aboriginal society.
Not all of the myths in this family describe the ancestral being as a snake. Of those that do, not all of them draw a connection with a rainbow. However, a link with water or rain is typical. When the rainbow is seen in the sky, it is said to be the Rainbow Serpent moving from one waterhole to another, and this divine concept explained why some waterholes never dried up when drought struck.
The Rainbow Serpent Festival is an annual festival of music, arts and culture in Victoria.
Names
right|thumb|Myndie |alt=Myndie as represented by Aborigines of Victoria, circa 1878.
The Rainbow Serpent is known by different names by the many different Aboriginal cultures.
Yurlunggur is the name of the "rainbow serpent" according to the Murngin (a Yolngu group) in north-eastern Arnhem Land, also styled Yurlungur,
Kanmare is the name of the great water serpent in Queensland among the Pitapita people of the Boulia District; it is apparently a giant carpet snake, and recorded under the name Cunmurra further south.