In the early days of 2010 I travelled to Central Australia, a result of always being captivated by the Indigenous Dreamtime and Creation stories that my mum read to me as a child. I spent hours bumping along desert roads in a 4x4 with a soft-focus gaze out into the lonely bush, marvelling at its beauty and imagining its voice as it told the elders, so long ago, about Yeperenye and Mala. The three week trip from Adelaide to Darwin was beautiful and life-changing and epic and all of the words in the thesaurus. During this time, I found peace, culture, history and love, as well as a deep connection to this land; land that was not ours, yet we took it anyway.
Me enjoying central Australia! (And being sunsmart!)
Perhaps because I have been there and witnessed the strength and beauty of Uluru, or perhaps because I have an empathetic streak that seems to elude the majority of our MPs, but regardless, I feel the need to add my voice to the rumble against climbing Uluru. That this remains a topic of discussion eludes me. Uluru is considered to be the centre of Creation. There are many differing Dreamtime stories that reference Uluru, but the Anungu people, who are the traditional owners of Uluru and the land around it, speak specifically of the marks on the rock from the creation beings and Anangu law (Tjukurpa) that are at the very centre of the relationships between people and animals and place. For them, Uluru does not represent forgotten past generations, but is crucial to dictating the way they live today and their future generations will live tomorrow. Time and time again we ignore the rights of Indigenous people: the very people who are the oldest living culture on earth, have managed this land for tens of thousands of years, had unique languages and laws and belongings. Indigenous Australians used songlines, often a reflection of constellations, to learn their history and navigate to food sources. They understood medicine and law and astronomy and climate, and lord knows, things that white Australia has never even thought to consider. Yet time and time again, we ignore advice from the Elders and refer instead to our own arrogant and presumably better-informed decisions. Allowing tourists to climb Uluru is one of them. Minister Adam Giles’ comments last month regarding keeping Uluru open for tourists to climb has opened the discussion, yet again. And yet again, we are ignoring the very people who know Uluru. Who own Uluru. Who conduct their life based on the stories and secrets that Uluru contains. And for the life of me, I cannot understand why we continue to ignore the thoughts and opinions of those who matter the most, except to say that it is a racist decision based purely on making more money and exploiting those who we have crushed since the day the Explorer landed at Botany Bay.Your response to that may be a ‘yes, obviously’, and if it is – good. But why then are we not doing anything about it? Why do we allow racism to continue so blatantly, from the Parliament to the footy field, yet because it does not directly affect us, we do not act?
For perspective – that’s me down the bottom
When I visited Uluru in 2010 I was awestruck. The unmatched beauty and sheer size of the ancient rock gifted me a unique sense of perspective on the world and my own place within it. I spent several hours walking around the base trying to comprehend the mythical atmosphere of the landmark in a deep, contemplative silence. I did not feel the need to climb Uluru to gain any sort of additional perspective or experience - just being near it, listening to it, was enough.
Uluru in the fading sunlight
Uluru will be there for generations to come: our politicians have not yet worked out how to mine it for coal or gas. The politicians that are taking advantage of our Indigenous people will not be around forever, but the stories about them, passed on through traditional storytelling, will remain with the Anangu people. It does not matter what I think, and it should not matter what our politicians think. The only opinion here that is worth listening to is that of the local Anangu elders. They do not want their rock to be climbed. Let’s start listening to the people that know the most and respect them for who they are.