After the most amazing Xmas celebration – we went back to Alice Springs to find Jamie who helped us heal her so she can take us to witness a beautiful wonder – Ulluru – which is a drive about 450 kms away from Alice Springs.
Listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site Ulluru is regarded as a very sacred space by the local aboriginal community Pitjantjatjara Anangu. It has two aspects to it – a male aspect which is Ulluru and a female aspect which is Kata Tjuta.
Aboriginals believe that beneath this sacred space there is a hollow space from which an energy is releases which they call “Tjukurpa” meaning dream time.
Ayers Rock – Male
Kata Tjuta – Female
“The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, traveled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Anangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja.”
The meaning of Kata Tjuta is many heads as it has a group of 30 different rocks of which the highest one is called “Mount Olga”. Mount Olga is known to be the residence of Snake Wanambi who lives in the water hole and comes out when its dry.
I basically came here for my birthday – and Brett and Hannah treated me to a stay in a nice 5 star hotel after being on the road since ages. Thanks Brett and Hannah – I love you.
Sources:
Josephine Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime : The Story of Prehistoric Australia and its People, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Turiya Tatyana 