Uluru

Overview

Uluru is a sandstone rock formation in the desert of central Australia, located within Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park in the Northern Territory. The Anangu, the Aboriginal traditional owners of the area, regard Uluru as physical evidence of the creation period, and ceremonial life continues at sites around its base. The park is jointly managed by the Anangu and Australia's national parks service. Uluru is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Present

Uluru is located within Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The Anangu own the land and lease it to the Australian government, and the park is jointly managed by a board with an Anangu majority together with Parks Australia, the national parks service. Anangu ceremonial life continues at Uluru, and some sites around the base are ceremonial grounds restricted under Anangu law to initiated men or to women. Climbing Uluru ended permanently in 2019, when the park's board closed the climbing route at the request of the Anangu, for whom the route crossed ground of ceremonial significance.

Religious Significance

Uluru holds a central place in the religious life of the Anangu, the Aboriginal people of Australia's western desert region. Anangu life is governed by Tjukurpa, the body of law, knowledge, and accounts of creation that explains how the world came to be and how people must live. According to Anangu tradition, ancestral beings traveled across the land during the creation period, and their journeys, battles, and deeds formed the landscape. The caves, fissures, and waterholes of Uluru are held to be the physical traces of those events. One account tells of Kuniya, the woma python woman, whose battle with Liru, the poisonous snake, left marks that Anangu identify on the rock's surface. Knowledge of Tjukurpa is graded: some accounts are open to everyone, while others are restricted to initiated men or to women. Anangu pass this knowledge on through ceremony, song, and teaching at specific sites around Uluru, and the rock serves as a place where Tjukurpa is taught to each new generation.

History & Structure

Uluru is a sandstone formation rising 348 meters above the surrounding plain, with a circumference of about 9.4 kilometers; the rock continues far below the ground. Its iron-bearing surface has oxidized to a red color, and the rock appears to change color at dawn and sunset. Aboriginal people have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, and caves around the base contain rock paintings. Europeans reached the rock in 1873, when the surveyor William Gosse named it Ayers Rock after a colonial official; Uluru, the Anangu name, is now the primary official name. In 1985 the Australian government returned ownership of the land to the Anangu, who leased it back to the national parks service under a joint management arrangement that continues today. Uluru and the nearby rock domes of Kata Tjuṯa form Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Additional Resources

• Official website: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Parks Australia)
• Related: Handback of Uluru to the Anangu (National Museum of Australia)
• UNESCO: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
• Book: Uluru: An Aboriginal History of Ayers Rock by Robert Layton (1986)