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The Holy Rock of the Aborigines
Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrops near the center of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory. Uluru is sacred to the local Aboriginal people of the area, known as the Anangu. The area around the formation is home to an abundance of springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Uluru is one of Australia’s most recognizable natural landmarks and has been a popular destination for tourists since the late 1930s. It is also one of the most important indigenous sites in Australia.
The local Anangu do not climb Uluru because of its great spiritual significance. They have in the past requested that visitors do not climb the rock, partly due to the path crossing a sacred traditional Dreamtime track (The words “The Dreaming” or “Dreamtime” are used to represent Aboriginal concepts of Everywhen, during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities.), and also due to a sense of responsibility for the safety of visitors. Until October 2019, the visitors’ guide said, “the climb is not prohibited, but we prefer that, as a guest on Anangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing it”.
The Anangu request that visitors do not photograph certain sections of Uluru, for reasons related to traditional Dreaming beliefs. These areas are the sites of gender-linked rituals or ceremonies and are forbidden ground for Anangu of the opposite sex to those participating in the rituals in question. The photographic restriction is intended to prevent Anangu from inadvertently violating this taboo by encountering photographs of the forbidden sites in the outside world.
As with many sites around Australia, there are stories from The Dreaming associated with Uluru that date back thousands of years. According to the Anangu, the traditional landowners of Uluru:
“The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, traveled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today.” Anangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings.
It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from Uluru will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse.
Glossary:
sandstone: arenaria;
a monolith: un monolite;
to outcrop: spuntare fuori;
a waterhole: una pozzanghera usata dagli animali per bere;
the heritage: il patrimonio;
indigenous: degli indigieni, natìo, locale;
due to: dovuto a;
a path: un sentiero;
Everywhen: “Ogniquando” concetto degli aborigeni dell’Australia che si riferisce ad un periodo di estrema antichità; la notte dei tempi;
ancestral: ancestrale, antichissimo;
a proportion: misura, proporzione;
gender-linked rituals: rituali legati al sesso maschile o femminile;
the ground: il territorio, il terreno, il suolo;
inadvertently: inavvertitamente, senza volerlo;
to date back: risalire;
a landowner: un proprietario terriero;
featureless: informe, senza caratteristiche di rilievo;
a creator being: un essere creatore;
widely: ampiamente;
cursed: maledetto;
an instance: un episodio;
attempt: tentare di fare qualcosa;
perceived: percepito come tale, apparente.
ULURU
