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An Uluru statement … from our heart

By Tjimpuna of the Anangu Mayatja Council of Elders

To the shock of Anangu* at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park on Tuesday, an 8 year-old child was left abandoned at the base of Uluru while both his parents left him to go climb. He was found by a Park Ranger with no food, water or parental supervision for more than 30 minutes. NT Police took the child to Yulara where after sometime the parents fronted on a ‘misunderstanding’ plea.

Gee, in the NT, we have the Stronger Futures Legislation about Children. If it was an Aboriginal child, FACS would’ve been in like wildfire … Where’s the media, NT Ministers, parliamentarians and NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner voicing on this … You need to show more support to Anangu.

Abandonment of a child while fulfilling your bucket list. Great parenting.

Don’t use my Anangu Country for these types of things. Also, a man was found taking indecent photos of children at the base of Uluru.

With all the illegal camping, rubbish being thrown around, child abandonment and indecent photography taking place in our Park, that has given us reason enough as Anangu Nguraritja and Mayatja to push for early climb closure.

Forget October, close it in August. Immediate action on the compliance of Park Staff as well; can’t blame Anangu because the park in the current instance does not support Joint Management.

Kunta wiya alatjii … Parkaku Waarka tjuta palula Anangu kulinma wiya … Tjukuringkula Waarkaripai wiyartu tjana … Nganana pikarti pulka mulapa …

(No shame this is … The majority of Park Staff does not listen to Anangu … There is no working together agreement being shown on the ground through joint management … this makes us truly angry …)

*Aṉangu is the name used by members of several Central Australian and Western Desert Aboriginal people to describe themselves.

This statement was originally published on Facebook and has been reproduced with permission.

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10 comments

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  1. Keitha Granville

    And the parents were charged with neglect? And the child was removed from them for a time?

    Why can’t people just respect nature in it’s glory and magnificence, why does it have to be climbed or crossed or conquered ?

  2. Andreas

    How good is (white) Australia, eh?

  3. Kaye Lee

    Tourism in the centre must be carefully managed.

    The traditional owners should be able to have a say in what happens there and they should be able to share in any profits made. They should manage the tourism businesses employing whatever administrative assistance they require. And they should make the rules about places of cultural significance so we can share them respectfully and with knowledge.

    Illegal camping must be stopped. Perhaps there is room for more regulated campgrounds somewhere with facilities? It is heartbreaking to think of campervans just dumping their waste.

    This is a uniquely Australian treasure. We must all be custodians as our First People have been for tens of thousands of years.

    If you leave a child in a car, you get charged. I don’t understand the “misunderstanding” excuse. That was very dangerous.

  4. Phil

    My wife and I were there a few years ago the view at sunrise and sunset at the rock is nothing short of breath taking.

    We travelled to the rock up the Great Central road from W.A. the public camping areas on this road are nothing short of a disgrace. The rubbish is strewn every where and it looks in places, like a city rubbish dump. The public toilets are disgusting. Some people must live like pigs. I despair.

  5. Carol Taylor

    I’m so sorry Tjimpuna, that people should be so disrespectful. I despair at times how to explain to white fellas, maybe it’s your grandma’s wedding ring and someone is going to crush it to dust..it’s only a very small part of how something can be in your heart and soul.

  6. wam

    Uluru is barely 26 years old for white territorians and their objections to using an Aboriginal word in 1993 were legion from the clp government down to the bush rednecks forcing the government to gazette a dual name Ayers rock-Uluru reversed some 10 years later when the NT had a labor government.
    Our rednecks, even in the ABC still use Ayers Rock, Gove Oenpelli refusing to use the Aboriginal names.
    The paper had a letter today ‘I am an Australian I should be able to climb any rock.’
    Sadly he is like the majority of white Australians who declare Aborigines have no rights to impinge on their white christian culture. A culture which does not recognise nor puts any value on Aborigines, their culture, language, history or belief system.
    What a ^@$$@ lousy lot of english speaking racist arseholes we are.

  7. johno

    Well said commenters. What is this obsession with climbing Uluru. It’s almost nothing short of fanatical. Some of us have this stupid bucket list that must be completed 100%. Sad.
    When I visited Uluru in 1983 we walked around the base. Very grateful for the experience.

  8. RomeoCharlie29

    In 47 yeas living in the NT I have visited Uluru about 14 times both working and recreationally, and have never felt the need or desire to climb it. I was fortunate to go when the airstrip was right beside the rock and well recall the overwhelming feeling of seeing it rise from the surrounding plain, grow bigger then tower over us as our light plane landed. Even without the spiritual attachment the indigenous landowners have, I am impressed by the awesomeness. Being close is enough for me. I am sorry it’s not enough for those who see climbing it as some form of entitlement.

  9. Paul Davis

    Perhaps the traditional owners and protectors of Uluru should shut it down now, like tomorrow. Throw the ugly “tourists” off their property, at gun point if necessary. Ban access to the national park for two years and rehabilitate the area. Of course the righteous Alan Jones brigade will scream and the rednecks will invade in their hiluxs and shoot up everything with their ‘legal’ assault weapons but then the world will see what Strayans, white anglo Strayans, are really like, what they value, what they respect. Our grubment, its supporters and too many of this country’s denizens are vile, revolting and selfish, unworthy of any modicum of respect. We have no values, no laudible or praiseworthy history. White Straya is just a foul skidmark on the underpants of humanity’s slow march to oblivion.

  10. R C

    Until I was thrown off a deserted beach on the south coast of NSW for not being Aboriginal, by a young Aboriginal local with threats of retribution if I remained, I felt allied to the struggle of the Indigenous Australians. I was there to rest and recover from a nervous breakdown. He walked all the way from the other side of the beach to tell me I had no right to be there and “how would I like it it if someone was sitting in my back yard without my permission”. It was a grim echo of twenty years earlier, when I was spat off Manly beach for not being an ‘Aussie’ even though I was born here. I had no idea how to get permission to sit on Red Rock Beach. Up until that moment I had felt such a welcoming spirit. It was in the wind and wrapped around me gently like a mother’s arms. I cried bitterly for a lot of reasons, none of which I need to explain. I more than respected the place – I was called there by the spirit to rest. Humanity needs to take a good long hard collective look at itself.

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