Uluru: Outback Icon or Aboriginal Bargaining Chip?
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.26.07 | 4:03 PM ET
At the moment, it seems to be both. The Australian government recently announced plans to crack down on child abuse in some Aboriginal communities by banning alcohol and pornography and sending in police and troops. In response, the angry leaders of one Aboriginal township near Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, are threatening civil disobediance by banning tourists from hiking up the landmark, the AP reports. For Aborigines, the government crackdown evokes painful memories of children taken from their families as part of a government assimilation strategy—children referred to now as the Stolen Generation.
Aborigines have never been happy about tourists climbing on Uluru, which they consider to be sacred.
In a recent series of stories for Slate about Aboriginal tourism, Rolf Potts noted the contradictory images around a sign posted at the Uluru trailhead.
“This sign, which was erected by the local Pitjantjatjara people, solemnly requests that you don’t climb up the face of a rock that they consider sacred,” Potts writes. “Aim your camera at a certain angle, however, and the top half of your viewfinder will capture the knots of tourists who’ve decided to climb the rock anyway (aided by a safety chain designated by the Australian National Park Service for that very purpose).”
Related on World Hum:
* Rolf Potts in the Australian Outback
* Australia’s ‘Bloody’ Success
* Bill the Cockie
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
adam kidd 08.04.08 | 9:12 PM ET
you would think such a majestic natural feature would evoke enough wonder as to be satisfied enough to look upon or touch it and know you were in the heart of australia, instead of feeling the need to “conquer” it by means of climbing the summit…this seems to be where some of the magic is lost in travelling. i can hardly imagine tourists beginning to climb the summit of a sacred site like mecca anytime soon.