Ulu Culture Essay

To most, Uluru is known as the largest rock in the world located in the centre of Australia. But to the Pitjantjatjara people of central Australia, Uluru is more than just a big Rock.

Uluru is a massive cultural site which is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people. These Indigenous people are the guardians and traditional land owners of Uluru and the nearby arears. Uluru brings great spiritual and cultural significance for the local indigenous people with eleven dreaming trails at Uluru and the surrounding areas.

Dating back 60,000 years, the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara belong to the oldest culture known. They Believe that their culture has always existed in central Australia and that great ancestral beings created this landscape during the much fabled Dreamtime. Uluru has said to provide physical evidence of these ancient events and for over 10,000 years have been used for traditional ceremonies that are still held the today.

Even though the lifestyle of the indigenous people has changed, they continue to live their lives by the ancient traditions and laws from the dreamtime stories told by their ancestors. The laws (Tjukurpa) provide the

basis of their unique

culture that of the indigenous people and provides the important relationship between the people, the land and all living things. Today, the cultural and spiritual connections continue to hold strong.
The spirits of ancestral beings remain to exist at Uluru making the site significantly important to the identity of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara language groups.

The people of these groups have inherited their own dreamtime stories and ceremonies associated with their specific place of birth. Their belief of the dreaming is a complicated system of beliefs, knowledge and practices that have their place to their community, to families and to individual people. It is considered their obligation to respect and look after the earth and continue these early traditions through to generations for all of time. To the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara language groups the dreaming is considered a powerful living force that shall be maintained and cared for as long as

possible.
Although to you Uluru is just a big red rock, to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people Uluru is more, it is their: beliefs, memories and home. For them is the reason that they exist and remains to guide to them through life and gives the ability to pass this amazing gift through generations and generations, and why Uluru and the surrounding sites will remain to be sacred sites for many years to come.