Ayer's Rock - Uluru Uluru National Park is one of the most visited tourist sites, near the geographical center of Australia in the southern Northern Territory. It is home to the famous Ayers Rock, sacred place and symbol of Aboriginal legends. The Ayers Rock is the largest rock on the surface of the earth, with its circumference of 9.5 km and a height of 348 m. Like an iceberg, only a tenth of its mass emerges. It is situated 400 km south of Alice Springs and 2000 km south of Darwin. Ayers Rock is a site out of time, it has about 600 million years!
Aborigines have always known it was not until 1872 that a European saw for the first time. The site is named after South Australian Premier Henry Ayers, a name given without knowing that the rock was already known to Aborigines under the name of Uluru (taking its "oulourrrou" by rolling the "r").
This monument is inscribed as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Anangu Aboriginal tribes who owns the Ayers Rock region have received the final and formal ownership in October 1985. They leased back to the government for 99 years.
Under direction of light, this monolith has different colors such as red or brown, it turns crimson and purple at sunset, are of a look so poetic and enchanting. Uluru but is primarily a place sacred to the Aborigines. They read stories in the landscape, and you tell them if you take the time to listen.
Geography When Australia separates from the prehistoric continent Godwana, the phenomenon occurs with a minimum of earthquakes and other tragedies ley, so that the continent is roughly unchanged for six hundred million years.
Land is strongly anti: 43% of the area consists of desert or dryland, 20% of semi-arid lands, and 7% of bare rock. Over two thirds of the continent are not conducive to life.
The subsoil is rich in gold, gemstones, and uranium ore (No. 1 worldwide for iron and bauxite).
The geological history of the rock Uluru ago began millions of years. Its vertical layers of sediment, once horizontal, were part of an ancient seabed, before being raised by the activity of the crust. Erosion, which rolled all that was around, dug in the rock gullies, ridges and furrows without destroying it. In fact, erosion takes the form of a gradual molt, where the sandy surface of the stone peel slowly, so that the giant still retains its original shape.
Park location today Ayers Rock, as a legacy of the world, attracts a large number of visitors: more than 400,000 in 2000. Increased tourism provides regional and national economic benefits. But it also presents an ongoing challenge for the conservation of the site ...
The origin of the world legends are all essential elements of Aboriginal culture, they influence the social life, art and all rituals such as dances, songs ... There are multiple versions of the world was created by the Aborigines.
Chief among these legends is that of "Dreamtime".
The world was formed by Great Ancestors (or Great Initiates). They existed before, asleep in an eternal sleep, and awoke to form the world. This period is known to Alcher, Alcheringa or Dreamtime. It was during this period that the Great Ancestors will shape the world according to their journeys: they shape the mountains and rivers, they will leave behind the minds of future men unborn. These trips are the core of indigenous religious ceremonies. It should be noted that these ancestors did not create the world, but they were content to turn it from something existing.
The appearance of the sun is one of the essential steps of creation. In one myth, the wind is pushing the Morning Star to the world, giving birth to light. That's when the earth, rocks, animals and men appear. In another legend, the sun goddess (Mother Sun) which is the source of light and life. The same man would be from a shapeless, monstrous, and as and when his physical transformation, a spiritual transformation takes place.
Where the Ancestors were tired from their travels, they fell asleep in their home, disappearing into the ground, or turning into rocks, trees that will eventually become sacred sites. Only the insiders can get close after completing the necessary rituals.
Not only the ancestors formed the world, but they created civilization, giving the man what he ought to know to survive but to rise spiritually. And they édictèrent a law: "This is your country you should never leave him, and always ensure that it remains unchanged." In the spirit of aboriginal man belongs to earth, and not vice versa. What makes the concept of someone leaving his country to invade another is pure sacrilege.
Where the Ancestors slept, that was the end of the Dreamtime. At this moment the world was as it is now left to the care of man. Elements of nature are loaded with symbols: the Uluru, this "beautiful stone" is the epicenter of cultural life of this people and, according to it, walk around it is a journey within " Dreamtime "and ancient origins ...
Another of these legends is that of Sister Djanggau "by the people of the earth Arnehm (north of Australia) Men were created by two minds: the sisters Djanggau called "Daughters of the Sun." They arrived from a distant land to shape animals, landscape and places named. They also gave birth to the first men.
The mythical origin of Uluru In the Dreamtime, when only the gods inhabited the Earth, the great god Snake went through a desert area in the center of the country. The "Red Centre". The air was so hot and the earth so dry that any form of life, among all those he had created, could not survive.
The god Snake then had a perfectly divine idea : It was planted in the middle of the desert, a giant seed, which germinate soon a gigantic tree.
Thus, he thought, the tree cover the vast plain of its foliage and will protect the earth's shadow. Once protected from hot sun, fertile soil will return and other trees, flowers, kangaroos, wallabies and possums will come to populate the region. And it will be beautiful like a dream.
And in His goodness he reveals the fabulous seed in the middle of the desert.
He then called the water of heaven. And the water fell from the sky in large tornadoes, over the seed. Alas, the gods sometimes have dreams of nothing beyond the limits of their creative power. The seed was too big, oh and never ever, in the middle of the desert, not poured enough water to germinate the seed of God. The plain was left hopelessly barren desert and the seed became hard as a rock, forming what we call "Uluru".
And even today, when it rains on Uluru, life seems to hang around, as if awaiting a miracle improblable outbreak ...
Another legend tells how aboriginal Uluru was created by two young boys playing in the mud in the rain at the Dreamtime, this age mythical creation. The "Track of Dreams" (the routes followed by the ancestors and sacred sites that link) converge by the dozens to the Uluru where myth meets. A great battle took place here, marking the end of the Dreamtime, when the people of the clan or Kunya Rock Python were attacked by warriors Liru or clan Snake Poison. The Liru fought them and killed their leader Kunya Ungata. This led to the Kunya to commit mass suicide: they killed themselves by singing.
can see on the rock boulders whose shape recalls the features of a woman Kunya, the head of a wounded assailant Liru and the bodies of two other Warriors at Uluru. These are javelins Liru who created the caves of southern flank, while the bodies of the warriors have been transformed into desert oaks.
"When Aborigines told me these legends ... the beauty of the surroundings seemed to me to be anything but a set of colored spots, caves and chasms: everything seemed now alive." (Charles Mountford, an anthropologist )
Official History of the Aborigines The remains found by archaeologists provide evidence that civilization has existed for 40,000 years Aborigines, however, its known history is much shorter, since it begins with the first explorers of this continent, the Dutch.
In 1628, the first Dutch ships approaching the coast of Australia. A fleet will be sent, but it will wreck while no colony was established and the idea will be abandoned.
In 1770, James Cook lands in eastern Australia, at Botany Bay. At this time, the aboriginal population is estimated at 350,000 persons distributed in 680 tribes speaking 500 dialects, derived from 200 languages, as Latin is declining.
In 1178, Captain Phillip landed with 750 convicts, including 200 women. Some days later, La Perouse landed with the Compass and the Astrolabe. However, France refused to legitimize the annexation of the western half of Australia by St Allouan (March 29, 1779).
This settlement will be a disaster to more than one reason for Australia's Aborigines are seen as subhuman and driven purely and simply. In addition, European animals that are imported will multiply very quickly, to the detriment of local wildlife. 350,000 of the indigenous population will drop to a few tens of thousands, certainly because of the killing, but also because women refuse to give life in such a world!
Currently, the number of aboriginal lie within three hundred thousand, of which 70% of mixed blood.
Aborigines are expected to remember every detail of the "Dream Track" to repeat or sing the hundreds of stories attached to them to convey the philosophy and knowledge of their ancestors. Each clan has its stories and songs, there are thousands in Australia. Like shamans, called Karaj, have access to the spirit world of dreams, these stories can never be forgotten. Aborigines are able to walk a visitor in the landscape, to describe the characteristics and sing legends associated with them. Called "vocal track" these routes, inseparable from the myth of the spirits causing the world into existence by singing. Aborigines perform a religious ritual and producer of energy that renews the existence of the landscape. These "vocal track" represent a common cultural heritage of many indigenous peoples that contributes to unite them.
were able to compare the "Dream Track" and "Directions for Singing" converging on a particular site powered electric son of an important node of energy that gives life to the surrounding landscape.
To the Aborigines, Uluru is therefore a prominent place in along the route of the Dream that crosses the country. But the rock has also become for other Australians a "national symbol of inescapable (Thomas Keneally, Australian writer).
rites of a people Initiation Each would be manned by two souls : mortal (Jallal), going to the be the moment of conception, and the immortal (jajaru) particle of life of the ancestor, received by pregnant women. It is the latter that will shape the features an individual's physical and develop his personality, making him little by little a perfect man (sIn complete sense, an insider). The father will find this immortal soul in a dream, then it exists in a well defined, waiting to be reincarnated: procreation is not due exclusively to the sexual act.
Before his birth, man is purely spiritual. At birth, it is only secular, and has forgotten what it was. Throughout his life, through various initiatives, it learns what he was, until his death ritualize where it becomes spiritual. The aim of the initiative is to pass the secular world sacred.
The first initiation was held between 6 and 14, and it lasts a few months to three years. Separated from his mother, the child is the first step in the spiritual world, a symbolic death of the profane (scarification, circumcision ,...).
The second initiation occurs at age 25 where he received his tjurunga (bull roarer).
And it was only 35-40 years he will know all the rituals and all the songs.
In fact, initiation is learning what it was. Men and women enjoy different initiation and secret to the opposite sex. And everyone benefits from sacred sites dedicated to her sex.
Other rituals Many rituals are repeated action copies made by the ancestors during the modeling world. Through repetition of such acts, insiders regenerate the world.
Another conception of man endows souls with three different destinies in the death of the individual. One returns to its center totem awaiting a rebirth (the particle immortal), the second mogwo, is a playful spirit bound to a certain place, and finally, the third goes to the land of the dead to merge with creative beings.
The medicine man or man-Ban He suffered a particular initiation that will make him the sole representative of the Ancestors. It is also through them that he has magical powers. This initiation is characterized among others by two stages: at some point, it must absorb some crystals in her body (they are swallowed or inserted into his skin), then it must enter a tomb where the dead host to entrust the secret language of the ancestors.
By Robine Anubisu, Hekate
