In the beginning, before the first human footprint marked the earth, the world was a place of water and wilderness. The great Sepik River wound through the northern territories of Papua New Guinea like a living serpent, its dark waters flowing endlessly between walls of impenetrable jungle. Massive trees rose from the swampy banks, their roots tangled in the mud, their branches heavy with vines and orchids. The air hung thick and warm, filled with the songs of countless birds and the drone of insects. Rain fell and ceased and fell again, feeding the river that was the heart of everything.
In this primordial world, only one creature possessed true consciousness and wisdom the crocodile, ancient beyond measure, existing since the very first waters had gathered upon the face of the earth.
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This crocodile was unlike any that swim in the rivers today, though his descendants still carry echoes of his majesty. He was enormous, his body stretching longer than the mightiest war canoes, his scales thick and ridged like armor forged in the depths of time itself. His eyes held the patient wisdom of ages, having witnessed the formation of the land, the birth of the forests, and the coming of every creature that now lived in the water and jungle. He was the keeper of mysteries, the guardian of the river’s secrets, and the oldest living memory of creation.
But despite his power and his timeless existence, the ancient crocodile carried within him a profound loneliness.
Day after day, he would glide through the dark waters of the Sepik, moving between the light and shadow beneath the overhanging jungle canopy. He watched the fish darting in silver schools, saw the water birds wading in the shallows, observed the insects dancing above the river’s surface. All around him was life abundant, teeming, endless yet none of it could truly know him. None could speak to him or understand the thoughts that moved through his ancient mind like currents beneath the water’s surface.
The crocodile longed for something he could not name a companion, perhaps, or a child. Someone who could share the world with him, who could learn from him, who could carry forward the wisdom he had gathered across the countless seasons of his existence. This yearning grew within him until it became an ache that even the cool river water could not soothe.
One evening, as the sun began its descent toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and purple, the crocodile hauled his massive body onto a muddy bank. The effort left deep furrows in the soft earth, and his scales glistened with water and river clay. He positioned himself carefully, his body stretched along the bank, and there he remained as darkness fell and the jungle filled with the sounds of night the calls of night birds, the chirping of frogs, the rustle of unseen creatures moving through the undergrowth.
The crocodile did not sleep, though he allowed his eyes to close. Instead, he entered a state deeper than sleep, a kind of sacred dreaming where the boundary between thought and reality grew thin. In this dream-state, he spoke to the river and the mud, to the water that had been his home and the earth that bordered it. He spoke of his loneliness and his desire, and he asked the world for the one thing it had never given him a companion who could understand.
As dawn approached, something miraculous began to happen.
The crocodile felt a strange sensation rippling through his ancient body, a tingling that started deep within and moved outward toward his scales. It was not painful, but powerful a transformation that seemed to come from the very core of his being. His ribs, which had protected his heart and lungs through millennia of existence, began to shift and separate. The sensation was like nothing he had ever experienced, as if his body were opening like a flower, revealing something precious that had always been hidden within.
As the first rays of sunlight broke over the river, turning the mist golden, the crocodile’s ribcage opened, and from within his body emerged something entirely new to the world the first man.
He came forth slowly, like a child being born, covered in the same river clay that coated the crocodile’s scales. He was small compared to his creator, vulnerable and new, but perfectly formed. As he took his first breath of the humid morning air, his eyes opened, and he looked upon the world with wonder and recognition. The crocodile watched with an emotion too deep for words, something between pride and love and an overwhelming sense of rightness.
The first man stood on unsteady legs, the river mud squelching beneath his feet. He reached out and touched the crocodile’s ancient scales with tentative fingers, feeling the ridges and patterns that covered his creator’s body. There was no fear in this touch, only curiosity and an instinctive understanding of connection.
The crocodile spoke then, and though his voice was the rumble of deep water over stones, the man understood perfectly. “You are my child,” the ancient one said, his words carrying the weight of absolute truth. “Born from my body, shaped from my longing, you are the answer to my solitude. Look around you this river, these waters, this jungle all of this is your home, as it has been mine since before memory.”
The man listened, his eyes wide, drinking in every word.
“The rivers will feed you,” the crocodile continued, his voice gentle despite its depth. “Fish will fill your nets, sago palms will give you flour, and the water will provide everything you need for life. Learn from the river it is patient and strong, destructive and life-giving. Respect it, and it will sustain you.”
The great crocodile shifted his body slightly, and the man instinctively understood he should come closer. He knelt beside his creator, one hand resting on the ancient scales.
“But know this, my child,” the crocodile said, and now his voice carried the solemnity of sacred law. “When your life reaches its end, when your time in this world is complete, you shall return to me. Just as you came from my body, so shall you return to it. We are bound together you and I, humanity and the river, the created and the creator. This bond can never be broken, not by time, not by distance, not even by death.”
The man nodded, and in that moment, an understanding passed between them that would echo through all the generations to come. He was not separate from the crocodile or the river or the natural world he was a part of it all, born from it, sustained by it, and destined to return to it.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the first man began his journey into the world, but he did not go far. He built his first shelter on the riverbank, within sight of the place where he had been born. He learned to fish and to harvest the bounty of the river and jungle. And when others like him emerged for the crocodile’s gift did not end with a single child they came together and formed the first communities along the Sepik River’s banks.
These first people never forgot their origin. They taught their children the story of the Crocodile Father, and they created ceremonies to honor the sacred bond. When young men came of age and were ready to be initiated into the full knowledge of their people, they underwent a ritual that marked them forever.
The initiates would be brought to special spirit houses where, through sacred rites, their skin would be cut in careful patterns hundreds of small incisions arranged in rows across their backs and chests and arms. When these wounds healed, they formed raised scars that created a pattern unmistakable to any who knew the river: the scales of a crocodile. Through this painful transformation, the young men were reborn, just as the first man had been born from the crocodile’s ribs. They bore on their bodies the permanent proof of their ancestry, the visible sign of their connection to the Crocodile Father.
Even today, along the winding banks of the Sepik River, this tradition continues. The scars are a source of pride, a mark of identity, and a living remembrance of the sacred truth spoken at the dawn of humanity: that people and crocodiles, humans and nature, are not separate things but rather different expressions of the same ancient spirit.
When a Sepik River man looks at his scarred skin, he sees his own body transformed into a map of his origin story. When he enters the river to fish or bathe, he returns to the waters that first gave birth to his ancestors. And when he dies, his people know he has kept the promise made in the beginning he has returned to the Crocodile Father, completing the sacred circle that began when the ancient one lay lonely on a muddy bank and dreamed a new kind of companion into being.
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The Moral of the Story
This profound creation myth from the Sepik River tribes teaches us that humanity and nature share one spirit and one origin. We are not separate from or superior to the natural world we emerged from it, are sustained by it, and will return to it. The crocodile’s gift reminds us that our bond with nature is not one of dominance but of kinship, and that true wisdom lies in recognizing ourselves as children of the earth and waters, forever connected to the source from which we came.
Knowledge Check
Q1: What was the world like before humans existed in this Sepik River creation story?
A1: Before humans, the world consisted only of water and jungle in northern Papua New Guinea. The great Sepik River wound through impenetrable forests with massive trees, tangled roots, and thick vegetation. The world was filled with fish, birds, and insects, but the ancient crocodile was the only creature with true consciousness and wisdom, having existed since the world’s first waters gathered.
Q2: Why did the crocodile create the first human in Papua New Guinea mythology?
A2: The ancient crocodile created humanity because of profound loneliness. Despite being powerful and wise, and despite being surrounded by abundant life in the Sepik River, he had no companion who could truly know him, speak with him, or understand his thoughts. He longed for someone who could share the world with him and carry forward the wisdom he had accumulated across ages.
Q3: How was the first man created according to Sepik River tradition?
A3: The first man emerged from the crocodile’s own body through a miraculous transformation. After the crocodile lay on a muddy riverbank in a sacred dream-state, expressing his longing to the river and earth, his ribcage opened at dawn, and the first man was born from within. He came forth covered in river clay, perfectly formed but vulnerable and new to the world.
Q4: What promise did the Crocodile Father make to the first human?
A4: The crocodile promised that the rivers would feed humanity, providing fish, sago palms, and everything needed for life. He also established a sacred bond, declaring that when humans die, they shall return to him—just as they came from his body, they would return to it. This created an eternal connection between humanity, the crocodile, and the natural world that can never be broken.
Q5: What is the significance of crocodile scarification in Sepik River initiation ceremonies?
A5: The ritual scarification creates patterns of raised scars on young men’s bodies that resemble crocodile scales, symbolizing their rebirth and connection to the Crocodile Father. Through this painful transformation during initiation, the young men are marked permanently with their ancestry, bearing visible proof of humanity’s origin from the crocodile. The scars are a source of pride and a living remembrance of their sacred bond with their creator.
Q6: What does the crocodile represent in Sepik River tribal culture and cosmology?
A6: In Sepik River culture, the crocodile represents the ancestor and creator of humanity the Crocodile Father. He embodies ancient wisdom, the connection between humans and nature, and the source from which all people emerged. The crocodile is not just an animal but a sacred being who bridges the natural and human worlds, teaching that people are children of the river and earth, forever bound to the environment that created them.
Source: Recorded by anthropologist Gregory Bateson in Naven: A Survey of the Problems Suggested by a Composite Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe (Cambridge University Press, 1936), and later retold in Tales from the Sepik River (National Cultural Council of PNG, 1981).
Cultural Origin: Sepik River Tribes, Northern Papua New Guinea
