For the Anangu people, Uluru is like a living creature: it can move, it can breathe and it has a soul.
The Anangu people, a group of people which involves several tribes of the Western desert cultural bloc: the Pitjantjatjara, the Ngaanyatjarra and the Yankunytjatjara people.
They have been living, hunting and cultivating the land for sixty thousand years and still are to this day.
Uluru’s people believe that this place was created by their ancient ancestral descendants and therefore it is a spiritual place to be protected and respected.
The Anangu people have a saying that means this creation time of Uluru and the land around it: Tjukurpa. Tjukurpa is not an abstract idea it lives in the land and the people.
Uluru and Kata Tjuta were formed and shaped by our creation ancestors. In their travels, they left marks in the land and made laws for us to keep and live by.
The Anangu people, each tribe of the collective, were nomads and together travelled the area with each season. Uluru has forever been a sacred spiritual place for them where they would meet, hold ceremonies and share stories of the ancient past.
The Anangu life has always revolved around keeping Tjukurpa and its ceremonial home alive and strong.
The creation of Uluru tells the ancient story of a battle between Kuniya, a female python spirit and the Liru warriors who had attacked her nephew on the south east side of Uluru while she was burying her eggs on the east end of the rock.
When she caught up with one of the attackers by the Mutitjulu Waterhole she killed him dead with the stick she had been using to bury her eggs. On the cliff face you can still see the marks of their battle in the form of two giant cracks.
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According to the Anagu’s beliefs and customs, when someone dies, they will be reborn in a new form which could include people, animals, plants and more. According to Uluru dreamtime, the world was a flat and almost empty place until the Anangu ancestors came to earth and walked across the land which created the great mountains, valleys and rock formations of Uluru and its surrounding landscape that we still see today.
James Yami Lester was one of the key Aboriginal Leader who lobbied to have Uluru given back to its people.
James survived nuclear testing in outback Australia, and is best known as an anti-nuclear indigenous rights activist because when he was a young boy he experienced and survived nuclear bomb testing.
Throughout his life, Tjamu Lester campaigned tirelessly at a local, national and international level for the restoration of Maralinga, following the atomic bomb testing.
His case was pivotal in the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia, as it demonstrated the harm caused by the black mist. The inquest resulted in group compensation for the Maralinga Tjarutja people and clean-up operations in the area.
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