What I found at Uluru: Australia’s most sacred Aboriginal site – The Times

I met Claire Edwards in the Field of Light, a desert vale of 50,000 tulip-like solar-powered electric flowers that bloom by night on the edge of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the arid heart of Australia. Shed been working at the Ayers Rock Resort for four years, spending weekends exploring the outback alone in search of the abandoned homesteads of settlers who had tried living in harsh, remote environments, and died trying.

Shed driven 400 miles west into the Gibson Desert, 500 east to the Simpson Desert, 1,000 miles north to Wolfe Creek and to distant, empty places in the south that Google will never find. Clearly a connoisseur of solitude, she was the obvious person from whom to seek advice; how could I have that massive red rock all to myself?

Im not generally so selfish, and at 348 metres high (1,142ft), with a circumference of nearly six miles and weighing 1.4 billion tonnes, Uluru does offer plenty of sandstone to go around. But unlike, say, Everest, which needs tourists for context, or Yosemite, which can absorb a crowd, or the wilds of Namibias Kaokoveld, where the dust plume of a distant car brings more relief than dismay, the fragile spell cast by this 500 million-year-old rock is too easily shattered by a crowd.

Western anthropologists call the indigenous creation myth the Dreaming

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When the English explorer William Gosse arrived here in July 1873 he found the inselberg riddled with holes and riven with gullies down which poured water from rain-fed springs. It was, he wrote, certainly the most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen, and then, in the manner of a typical bloody tourist, he climbed it.

Like the thousands who came after him, he might as well have been scrambling across the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, because just as that is the holiest church in Christendom, so Uluru is the most sacred site in Australia.

In the language of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people, or Anangu, on whose land the monolith lies, Uluru means big stone. And thats exactly what it is a giant lump of sandstone that extends a mile and a half below the surface. Long Tom Tjapanangkas painting Uluru with Shadows strips it back to the elements: red rock, black shadows, yellow land and sky.

Understanding its cultural significance is another matter. When the first colonists arrived on a continent that Cook had 18 years earlier declared terra nullius empty land there were an estimated 750,000 Indigenous Australians living here. Theirs is the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth, rooted in a creation myth that western anthropologists called the Dreaming.

We are not dealing with a simple word-to-word translation such as yonga equals kangaroo, but with a complex metaphysical and spiritual concept for which there is simply no adequate English rendering, wrote the late Australian novelist Colin Johnson in his book Master of the Ghost Dreaming.

The Dreaming, the artist Wally Caruana once said, is not unreality, but a state of reality beyond the mundane a trance-like state in which contact is made with the ancestral spirits, or Tjukuritja, that arrived in a featureless, pre-human world.

Their conflicts and other interactions created all that we see today, and like the paths they travelled the iwara, or songlines the Tjukuritja are still around today; you just have to know what youre looking for.

So on the one hand Uluru is the most sacred of Aboriginal sites a landmark that offers tangible proof of what is seen in the Dreaming and a physical link to 65,000 years of culture and on the other its a bucket-list tick box best grammed at dusk or dawn and which you could still climb until 2019.

Mutitjulu Waterhole

ALAMY

But I dont want to climb it. Or gram it. I just want a bit of solitude and silence within which I may or may not feel its sacred glow. The problem is that everyone who comes to see Uluru is crammed together in the tourist village at Yulara and apart from the artificial attractions of the Field of Light and the new Wintjiri Wiru drone show there are basically just three things to do: watch the rock at sunrise; go for a walk around the rock after sunrise; watch the rock at sunset.

The first option is a sparsely attended example of the intention-action gap, and the trick is to let whoever else has made the 15-mile drive to the sunrise viewing site Talinguru Nyakunytjaku make the first move. They all head for the nearest viewpoint, so you walk to the furthest. Its not quite far enough to be out of earshot, but its as peaceful as you can get around here at this time of day.

Option two seems like a lovely idea, but is fraught with, well, people wobbling on bikes, panting in Lycra, pouting for pics and even on Segways. I gave up and went to Mutitjulu, the village at the foot of the rock.

The Anangu who live here campaigned for years to regain custody of their sacred rock, but it would be inaccurate to say that theyre getting rich on the back of Australias most famous natural attraction. The community receive 25 per cent of national park receipts, as well as the profits from a souvenir shop, caf and art centre. Park revenue alone is estimated at 13 million for 2023, but that money has to be spent on projects in communities spread across 300,000 square miles. In the meantime, Mutitjulu has a swimming pool, but lacks reliable water, power supplies and sewage disposal.

The National Indigenous Training Academy (NITA) runs apprenticeships for waiting staff, cleaners, receptionists and porters at the Ayers Rock Resort, which is owned by the Australian governments Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, and while a handful of so-called cultural experiences are on offer, there seems to be very limited locally led involvement in the Uluru tourism industry.

Where were all the indigenous entrepreneurs, tour leaders, nature guides and storytellers? They arent that interested, a member of the national park staff told me. They need the money, but many would rather there were no tourists here.

That raises a moral and ethical dilemma: if the locals dont want us here, why are we still coming?

But maybe Anangu opinions dont matter here. In 2017 the Uluru Statement from the Heart called on the government to change the constitution to include indigenous voices in parliament and establish a truth-and-reconciliation commission. Last week six out of ten Australians voted against that proposal.

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Every public-facing entity in Australia corporations, educational and administrative establishments pays diligent lip service to the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live, adding their respect to Elders past, present and emerging. But the majority clearly dont want to hear their voices on matters beyond dot painting, Dreaming or didgeridoos.

Sunset is the final activity at Uluru, and it was now that Edwards advice applied. Everyone leaves for dinner the moment the sun dips below the horizon, she said. You should stay. Youll see why.

She was right. The camper vans, 4x4s and rental cars left moments after dusk, and when the dust cleared Uluru was fading into the darkness but fading slower than the eastern sky, so as the half-moon rose over its right shoulder the rock appeared to glow.

A red centre road in the Australian outback

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The wind picked up and, as the spinifex sighed, Uluru burnt like red-hot iron in the deepening darkness. The viewpoint is at least a mile from the monolith, but it seemed to me that I could feel it radiating the days heat. It faded slowly, like a dying ember, then became one with the night.

Chris Haslam was a guest of Tourism Australia (australia.com). Twelve nights room only from 2,899pp, including flights and car hire, on the Sydney, Rock and Reef tour the classic first-time itinerary, with two nights at Uluru (travelbag.co.uk). Guests must have special permissions in place via Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation (MCAC) to visit Mutitjulu

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Australia has been slow to promote tourist attractions owned and operated by the indigenous community, but the number of options are increasing. Tourism Australia launched the Discover Aboriginal Experiences initiative in March, offering more than 160 excursions from 45 businesses, all led by Indigenous Australian guides (discoveraboriginalexperiences.com). Here are three of the best.

1. Wajaana Yaam Adventure Tours, New South Wales For thousands of years the Gumbaynggirr people of Coffs Harbour have propelled their canoes standing up, and thus have a credible claim to be the original stand-up paddleboarders. Wajaana Yaams five-hour adventure paddle is a guided tour through the wild hinterland of Coffs, Moonee and Red Rocks creeks, visiting ancient sites, hearing local stories and eating traditional bush tucker (from 183pp; wajaanayaam.com.au). Stay at the Pacific Marina Apartments in the Jetty precinct, close to North Wall beach. Details One nights self-catering for two from 130 (pacificmarina.com.au). Fly to Coffs Harbour

Wajaana Yaam Gumbaynggirr Adventure Tours

2. Wukalina Walk, Tasmania Join guides from the Palawa community for a four-day hike through the Trawlwoolway country, along the northeast shore of Tasmania, climbing Wukalina (Mount William National Park) and wandering the beaches of the Bay of Fires. Youll camp in some comfort, learning local foraging techniques, discovering the wildlife and, by night, listening to the stories of Palawa elders. The hiking is easy 12 miles is the furthest distance covered in one day and the last night is spent at the Eddystone Point Lighthouse. Details Three nights full board from 1,500pp (wukalinawalk.com.au). Fly to Hobart

The Bay of Fires

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3. Wintjiri Wiru, Northern Territory Two hours after the Uluru sunset, lasers light up the bush and 1,100 drones take to the air, forming shapes and images to illustrate the inma, or sacred stories, sung by locals. The tech is supplied by Bruce Ramus, the man behind U2s light shows. The script is by the people of the Pitjantjatjara community. The experience, run by Ayers Rock Resort, is perhaps as close as we will come to the Dreaming (from 100; ayersrockresort.com.au). The Outback Hotel & Lodge at Yulara is the best value of the resorts hotels. Details Room-only doubles from 95 (ayersrockresort.com.au). Fly to Ayers Rock

Wintjiri Wiru

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What I found at Uluru: Australia's most sacred Aboriginal site - The Times