Uluru. The Story Rock

Uluru, the belly button of Australia

A sharp intake of breath and some gasps of amazement was all we could manage when we swung around the bend and over a hill bringing Uluru in full magnificent view. Now there is something one won’t forget in a hurry, that first eyeful of the giant, red monolith underneath a sky as blue as a budgies bum. This is the  moment the long drive becomes justified and a somewhat faded memory. We are nowhere – the wind is swishing gently through the desert oaks –  vast natural Aussie plains – a reprieve from anything built by human hand – an awestruck feeling wraps around us – something is going on around here –  an ancient feel - calm and soothing. Is this home?




Just an awesome site

 

So bare with me for a moment! I am a big fan of the ABC’s ‘Conversations’ and an even bigger fan of its presenter Richard Fidler. His interviews are inspiring and have played their part in this crazy getaway Jules and I are finding ourselves on. Somewhere along the Sturt Highway we were listening to the podcast where Richard interviewed Lynne Kelly, the Science Writer. She told the story of how she was testing her memory by associating the name of a country with every street address in her suburb. She could remember over 400 countries by just walking her dog along her local streets.

Lynne then spoke of her visit to Stonehenge, where she has come up with a different theory as to why it was built and what the purpose of its existence is. What if Stonehenge, with all the windows, burs and dents, are cues to remind the initiated of the stories and laws of the land by using this same powerful memory technique? A place to remember and pass on the important information and lessons learned of the history of an ancient civilization. An art form lost to our society. Could Stonehenge be compared with the memory bank of a computer?



Still the mystery remains at Stonehenge!
Photo courtesy of the Huffington Post

Let's cruise back to the belly button of Australia and the budgies bum. Imagine walking around Uluru, having important knowledge of your fellow men available in every rock, crevice, tree or animal you are surrounded by. A story that could easily be bigger than 400 memorised countries, passed on to you by thousands of generations. Imagine it to be all you know and all you need.



Fountain of knowledge



To speak with Sam Cook ‘what a wonderful world this would be’
 

I have heard many different versions of the story of Liru and Kuniya but found the following a great example how Indigenous people make use of the landscape in their stories
 

Mount Conner from afar

 

Long ago in the Tjukurpa (Creation times in the Pitjantjatjara language), the Kuniya or non-venomous carpet snakes journeyed from Paku-Paku, a waterhole near Mount Conner west of Ayers rock (Uluru), until they came to a large, flat sandhill in the centre of which was a waterhole. They made their camp there and for a time life was very good. Each day the Kuniya women were able to find plenty of food which they carried home to the camp in their curved wooden carrying dishes. 

They prepared their bread from seeds gathered from grasses on the plain and cooked it in the ashes of their fires. The Kuniya men, after hunting kangaroos, emus and wallabies, like to lie resting at the edge of the sand hill as the sun set. This sand hill at the close of the Creation era turned to rock.



It is believed a long long time ago Uluru may have been a sand hill that turned to rock

The Kuniya people themselves were changed into various features of what is now called Ayers Rock. The women seated in their camp became large boulders in Tjukiki Gorge while their piti (wooden carrying dish) became a tall slab of rock at the head of the gorge. A rock hole represents their campfire and small grasses and bushes which grow in tufts in the gorge are their hairs. The sleeping Kuniya men turned into boulders which now lie motionless in the sun on the plain beneath. 

   

Can this be the sleeping Kuniya men?

 

While the Kuniya people were staying at Ayers Rock, however, life did not remain peaceful. A party of venomous snake men, the Liru, were travelling around in the Pitjantjatjara country, causing a lot of trouble. The Liru camped at Katatjuta (Mount Olga) and then decided to approach Ayers Rock to attack the Kuniya. They were led by the great warrior Kulikudgeri, and travelling in a large group they crossed the sand hills and arrived at the camp of a powerful Kuniya woman named Pulari. Pulari had separated herself from the rest of her people as she had just given birth to a child.

 

Katatjuta (formerly known as the Olga's) home of the Liru

Enraged and desperate to protect her child, she sprang at the Liru with her child in her arms, spitting out the essence of disease and death, or arukwita. Many of the Liru were killed, but they continued to attack. A young Kuniya warrior challenged Kulikudgeri to a fight to the death and the Liru man, after an arduous battle, fatally wounded the Kuniya man who crawled away over the sand hill.    
 

The site of the battle at the foot of Uluru

 

Kuniya Inkridi, the mother of the slain youth, then rose in a fury and struck Kulikudgeri a great blow on the nose with her digging stick. He died in agony, his blood streaming over the surface of the land, leaving stains on the rock that remain today. Kuniya Inkridi mourned for her lost son. She covered her body in red ochre and sang and wailed into the night. She spat out arukwita, the essence of death and disease, and any man approaching that site today will be stricken.   

Grey Bits

 
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If you want to download the Conversations podcast of Lynne Kelly or any other free Podcasts this is where you need to go http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/guests/



The tourists climbing the rock of stories

 

Lynne Kelly has published several books and is an accomplished author well worth Googling

 

 

One of Lynne Kelly's books

 

There is an interesting article written in the Huffington post about Stonehenge.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/23/stonehenge-theories-mysterious-monument_n_5015553.html

I found this great version of the story of Liru and Kuniya at the following website
http://rmwebed.com.au/web_resources/ab_culture/dreamt_kuniya.htm

Katatjuta at sunrise