Any country has famous landmarks which are immediately recognised and associated with that country by people all over the globe.  Next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, two of Australia’s most famous man made landmarks, Ayers Rock, or Uluru as it is called by the Aboriginal peoples living in the area of the rock, is Australia’s most famous natural landmark.  As the name shows, the rock represents the old ways of the Aborigines as well as the modern Australia of the white settlers, standing as a symbol of Australia’s mixed culture, and how the cultures of white Australia and the Aborigines have now become unified after years of persecution for the indigenous Aborigines.

Uluru itself is instantly recognisable, as a huge red mass of sandstone which changes colour in the sunlight, depending on the time of year or day.  The rock is actually the remains of a mountain range which has been eroded through the course of time, to leave this one huge outcrop in the south of the Northern territories, over one thousand feet high, which rises suddenly from the flatness of the surrounding desert, which hides much of the rock from view.

Whilst the rock was only first discovered by the surveyor William Gosse in 1873, which he named after the governor of Australia at that time, the Aborigines believe that the rock is a monument which evidences their beliefs about how the world was formed during Dreamtime, the dawn of time.  Many of the fissures and marks on the rocks are explained in Aboriginal mythology, and the caves in the rock are full of cave paintings which have been renewed by the Aborigines for thousands of years.  As such, the site is very sacred to the Aborigines.

During Dreamtime, the Aborigines believe that the first ancestor spirits created everything in the world, moving around as men and other living things.  Uluru is seen to record the events of the Dreamtime, as Uluru itself is believed to have been created when two tribes of these ancestor spirits agreed to meet for a feast.  One tribe was delayed, as they stopped at a water hole to admire a Sleepy Lizard Woman who was very beautiful.  This caused the waiting tribe to grow angry as the second tribe didn’t arrive.  They created the dingo by singing to a mud sculpture and joined in battle with the other tribe, and the ensuing slaughter left both tribes’ leaders dead along with many others, causing the world to rise up in grief, which is how Uluru was formed.

Other marks on the rock are explained by these spirits.  An example is a series of hollows on part of the rock, said to be where a small red lizard called Tatji tried to retrieve its throwing stick after it became embedded in the rock during Dreamtime.  Whilst digging to retrieve the stick, Tatji created the marks in the rock until he died and became rocks in a cave in the rock, as he was unable to retrieve his stick.  As such, various parts of the rock represent the Dreamtime spirits.  The Aborigines believe they can contact these spirits and Dreamtime by touching the rock.

When the white settlers arrived on Australia, the conflict between the indigenous Aborigines and the whites were to last into recent history.  Large areas of the land were made Aboriginal reserves between 1918 and 1921, similar to the Reservations given to the Native Americans, and part of the National Park in which Uluru sits was part of one of these reserves.  However, it wasn’t until 26th October 1985 that ownership of the land and Uluru was given back to the Aborigines, although they had to agree to let the lands be leased for the next ninety-nine years.

As such, Uluru is culturally significant for Australia due to its symbolism of Australian history.  The long history of the Aborigines all the way back to the dawn of time is preserved in the stories and cave paintings, which are key to the Aborigines’ beliefs about Uluru and all of Australia’s creation.  In more recent times, the rock can also be seen to represent the struggle between the white settlers and the Aborigines, both due to the two names given to the rock and the fact that the land around, and Uluru itself, has been given back to the original inhabitants of Australia after more than a century of racial struggles. During this time, the Aborigines were oppressed and treated like inferiors.  Uluru has brought Australian culture together, standing as a symbol of this to the world.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/australia/uluru-ayers-rock