Eingana is a deity in Aboriginal Australian folklore, from Northern Territory (Bamboo Creek area, Australia). Eingana is a creator-mother snake of the Jawoyn tradition in Australian Aboriginal mythology who contained all living beings within her and is associated with water, the Dreaming, and control over life and death.
In Jawoyn accounts recorded in the provided sources, Eingana is a primordial being who once 'had everything inside herself' and 'made everything.' She is said to have taken people and animals inside her, emerging from 'a big waterhole near Bamboo Creek' in the Dreaming. One recorded version states that because she lacked a birth opening she could not release the life inside her until the creator-god Barraiya opened a hole with a spear near her anus so labour could commence; thereafter she released birds, snakes, animals and children during the rain/flood season (Wikipedia summary; extract).
Eingana is described as a very large serpentine being — a 'snake' and commonly labelled the 'Dreamtime Snake' in the sources. One extract emphasizes primordial size: 'She was big with everything inside her.' The sources also show inconsistent statements about visibility: an extract records 'No one can see Eingana,' while the same material and the Wikipedia summary describe her standing up out of flood water and letting living things go, indicating that she is described as unseen in ordinary circumstances but manifest in particular water/flood conditions (extract; Wikipedia summary).
Eingana functions as a creator and progenitor: she contained people and animals within her during the first time and later released them. She is explicitly described as 'the mother of all water animals and humans' (Wikipedia summary) and as holding a sinew attached to every living thing such that 'if she lets go of one, the attached creature dies' (Wikipedia summary). Mythic behaviour in the extract includes rolling, groaning, and making a 'big noise' while the beings inside her moved during the birthing/containment episode. The Wikipedia summary additionally records the narrative detail that Barraiya opened an opening to allow birth, a cosmological action used to explain the release of life.
Adnoartina
Adnoartina is a Dreamtime ancestral lizard-being in Dieri tradition associated with the creation of red ochre (yamparnu) and the formation/sanctification of landscape features such as Uluru. The being’s actions in ancestral time explain the origin of sacred pigment and sustain ritual practices and social journeys to ochre sources.
Akenta
Akenta is attested in the provided sources only as a proper name appearing in several unrelated contexts (a listing of South Australian groups, commercial wine branding, a health company, and a parliamentary text). The sources do not describe Akenta as a supernatural being, and no mythic attributes, appearance, powers, or rituals are recorded.
Anjea
Anjea is an Australian Aboriginal fertility spirit described as the custodian of human souls between incarnations who fashions new human bodies from earth and returns them to mothers. She is attested in secondary sources summarizing Aboriginal mythology as a figure linking death, the interval between lives, and rebirth.
Arkaroo
Arkaroo is a primordial ancestral serpent of the Dreaming associated with the northern Flinders Ranges (Ikara/Wilpena Pound) in South Australia. In local creation narratives it drank the waters of Lake Frome, carved valleys by reclining in the mountains, and left waterholes where it rested; the being is commemorated in place-names and rock art at sites such as Arkaroo Rock.
Baiame
Baiame is a principal creator/ancestral Sky Father in the Dreaming traditions of several south‑eastern Australian Aboriginal peoples. He is credited with shaping landscape, instituting law and ceremony (notably the first bora initiation), and returning to the sky while remaining present in sacred sites and rock art.
Barraiya
Barraiya is named in a single recorded account as a god in Australian Aboriginal mythology who fashioned the first vagina with a spear so that the being Eingana could give birth. The attestation presents Barraiya in a creator role connected to the origin of human birth.
Blue Mountains panther
A reported large feline/phantom cat alleged to inhabit the Blue Mountains region west of Sydney, Australia. Treated in local belief and contemporary folklore as an outsized cat—often described as panther-sized—sustained by repeated eyewitness reports, occasional physical traces, and periodic investigations rather than by scientific confirmation.
Bunyip
A class of Aboriginal Australian water-being from southeastern Australia associated with swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes. Bunyip stories warn people away from dangerous waters and in some traditions enforce resource-use norms and child safety.
Buttons (pantomime)
Buttons is a stock theatrical character in British and Australian Cinderella pantomimes, typically a male household servant who helps Cinderella, expresses affection for her, and provides comic and emotional engagement with the audience. The role is conventional to stage pantomime practice rather than a supernatural being.
Cleone
Cleone is attested in the provided sources primarily as a feminine given name, a literary character/title (notably Robert Dodsley's 1758 tragedy), a subject of poetry (Henry Kendall), and a California place name. The supplied materials do not provide evidence of Cleone functioning as a folkloric supernatural being; a Wikipedia disambiguation line mentions a mythological Naiad named Cleone but no supporting primary or descriptive sources are present in the provided set.
Daramulum
Daramulum is a southeastern Australian Aboriginal sky-hero and ancestral figure associated with the major creator Baiame and with an emu-wife. He is embedded in rock‑art, sky knowledge (constellation identification), and initiation ritual practice, notably as a presence voiced through the bullroarer.
Gwion Gwion
A regional tradition/style of painted anthropomorphic rock art from the north‑west Kimberley region of Western Australia, characterized by finely rendered human figures with ornamentation. The tradition (also known by local names such as Kiro Kiro/Giro Giro) is archaeologically significant and the subject of debate over age and authorship.
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Community Record
- [1]Eingana — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. 'Eingana.' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (summary and page extract provided in research notes)wiki
- [2]Eingana — Wikidata. Wikidata entry Q2571483 for Eingana (confirms classification as an Australian Aboriginal goddess as cited in research notes).wiki
- [3]MSPFA Archive - Eingana (archival reference). Archive entry referencing the name 'Eingana' (noting use of the name in archival/creative contexts; cited in research notes).other
- [4]Cell Songs (archive reference). Archive entry which references Eingana in a creative/archival context (cited in research notes).other
- [5]Eingana And Rusalka The New Form Of Resource Management (archive reference). Archive item referencing the name 'Eingana' in a modern/archival title (cited in research notes).other