Creative Writing

The Creation of the Rainbow 

An Indigenous-Inspired Creation Myth 

 Once upon a time there lived a bird called Rain. Rain was no ordinary bird, she was different, she was the only colourful bird in all the forest. Rain was perfect, with her bright colours being enough to make anyone fall in love but there was one problem. Since Rain had colours like no other, she was hunted. The humans were jealous and dreamed of having a beauty like hers, so they decided to hunt her down and kill her.  

The leaves were dewy, and the grass was frosty. It was a cold morning in the Daintree Forest, but the sun was still shining through the gaps in the leaves. Birds were chirping until the clouds started forming around the sun and the sky turned dark. It had been a normal day. Rain was flying over the land and through the trees, back towards Rain’s nest. As Rain landed in her nest, she could hear rummaging and unclear whispers in the bushes below her. She looked over her nest to see five aggravated hunters standing below her with bows and arrows. Rain panicked and looked for a way to escape, they only wanted to kill her so they could keep her colours. She spread her wings and began to take off as the hunters looked up, grabbed an arrow from their bags and aimed at Rain before she could get away in time. The arrow flew through the misty forest air and trees before piercing Rain’s body, going straight through Rain’s heart, and killing her. She slowly began to float to the ground as her feathers floated back up to the cloudy sky ascending into the sky to form a beautiful rainbow. This rainbow became the blueprint for all rainbows to come. 

The hunters picked Rain up from the ground and grabbed the arrow from her before dumping her back on the ground and leaving her to die. Seconds later, Rain started growing legs, then arms and before you knew it, she was human sized and had long, luscious hair flowing down to her knees with a bow and arrow attached to her back with a strap. Rain knew what she had to do, for years she was targeted and hunted just so peoples’ wishes would come to life and they could have colours like her. All there was left to do was to kill the hunters before the feathers would float back down to land and be found by the hunters, so they could paint themselves and everyone else with feathers. Rain decided it was time to get revenge, she searched through bushes, trees and long grass trying to find the hunters camp before she could hear mumbling through the echo in the frosty sky. 

Rain quietly stepped closer towards the noise before pulling an arrow from her bag and aiming through the bushes. She could see the five hunters sitting around a bonfire at their camp. They had five separate huts set up in a circle with many more people in there. It was visible the hunters had already gathered feathers from the ground and had laid them in a pile on the long dewy grass. Rain aimed towards the closest hunter and shot. It went straight through him, but the other four hunters noticed right away and rushed straight to the bushes Rain had aimed from. Rain sped off and hurried up into a tree close-by that she could clearly see the hunters from. 

Rain couldn’t be seen amongst the trees. She waited as the hunters passed by and went back to the camp before pulling a second arrow from her bag. Rain thought of a new plan. She could see the families leaving the huts and moving into the distance to escape from the scene. Rain climbed down the tree and crawled through the overgrown grass. She pulled another three arrows from her bag and held them all in her hand. The hunters turned their backs and began walking off towards the rest of the crowd before Rain jumped up from the grass and stabbed all four of them in the back then watched them all as they paused and dropped to the ground, creating a deafening thud throughout the forest. The families turned around in shock and ran before they were next. 

Rain’s story teaches us the valuable lesson to not judge people we don’t know because of jealousy. 

BY TAEGAN MCNEILL AND PEYTON LAFITE 

Greensborough College - Acrostic Poem 

Great School

Respect

Encourage

Empathy

Nurturing

Super

Bright

Opportunities

Relationship

Outstanding

Understanding

Great

Honesty

Colourful

Open

Lucky

Loving

Excellence

Go for it

Exciting place to be

By

Isabella P and Ruby H - 7A