Ayers Rock (Uluru)

The Anangu have cared for this land for over 30,000 years—one of the oldest continuous human cultures on Earth. Ownership was returned in 1985; climbing ended in 2019.

In Anangu understanding, the world was originally featureless until ancestral beings traveled across it during the Dreamtime, creating everything through their actions. Uluru records multiple creation journeys. Kuniya, the python woman, traveled from the east to lay her eggs near Uluru. When Liru, the venomous snake, killed her nephew, Kuniya fought him in grief and rage. Their battle left marks visible today—the scars and grooves on the rock that record the Dreamtime event. The Mala men, the hare-wallaby people, journeyed to Uluru from the west for a ceremony. Their path is recorded in the landscape. Other ancestral beings—Lungkata (the blue-tongue lizard man), Itjaritjari (the marsupial mole)—also left their marks. These are not myths but law; the marks are not metaphors but evidence. For over 30,000 years, the Anangu have maintained this understanding, transmitting Tjukurpa through oral tradition, ceremony, and art. European contact came in 1873 when explorer William Gosse, seeing the rock from a distance, named it 'Ayers Rock' for the South Australian Premier—a name imposed without consultation that persists alongside the original name. Through the 20th century, tourism grew while traditional owners watched climbers ascend their sacred site. In 1985, ownership was returned to the Anangu, who leased it back to the government for joint management. In 2019, after years of asking tourists not to climb, the traditional owners exercised their authority and closed the climb permanently.