November 4, 2001-Take Off
(photos:Uluru-Ayres Rock,
David and Aborigine guides)
We set the alarm for 4 A.M. so we could make a 6:15 A.M. flight from Cairns to Ayres Rock (Ulhuru) at the Red Center. Unfortunately, we were up at 2 A.M. & slept fitfully until the alarm. We arrived at the airport exhausted. Going through security perked us up. They found nail clippers on the x-ray. It was exciting because David had been looking for them since we left home in August. They removed the nail file attachment & we were on our way. I’ve never seen an airport laid out the way this one is. Departure area gates are arranged around a sitting area that looks like a hotel lobby. There are groupings of couches, chairs, & coffee tables in a large open room with a vaulted ceiling. Gates are interspersed with shops & a few cafes. It was delightful.
The flight to the Center was 3 ½ hours. Breakfast was served but I wouldn’t know anything about that. I fell asleep some time during take off & woke up just before landing. The last sight I remember was a flash of the azure Coral Sea giving way to the emerald rainforests. When I woke up, I was flying over the outback gazing down on a burnt ochre land strewn with great patches of gray-green scrub. I turned to David & said that it looked as if we were arriving in Georgia. I expected the heat to bowl us over, but at 9 AM, it was only in the high 70s.
Landing
The Ayres Rock Resort Airport was built by the same people who built all the hotels in town. There are six hotels & a campground arranged along a loop road. Everyone here works for the “company store” (Park Department). In 1985, a land agreement was made between the aborigines & the government. This area in the Northern Territory was leased by the Park Department from the aborigines for 99 years. It reverts to them after that. The hotel complex is outside the park. The aborigines are teaching the rangers about the culture, land, & laws (Tjukurpa). Some of this lore & law is too sacred to speak about out loud. The aborigines have devised a sign language that enables them to discuss these things in spite of the taboo. There’s evidence that something is getting lost in the translation. Aborigines posted numerous signs asking people not to climb the Rock since it’s a sacred place to the Anangu people (the tribe that lives here). This caveat is printed on the admission tickets to the park & tourists are told about this request when they visit on guided tours. But as you enter the park there’s a Park Department sign saying that the climbing path is open or closed depending on weather & heat conditions. Certificates are also available at gift shops declaring that you climbed the Rock. Alternately, we saw t-shirts that say, “I did not climb Ayres Rock.”
The Rock
We thought we’d be disappointed when we got here. We imagined ourselves driving out to the Rock, getting out of the car, looking up, & saying, “Yes, it’s a rock.” What actually happened was that we saw it from the plane as we landed. It’s about 12 miles from the airport & it was huge! We rented a car & headed for Ulhuru. The closer we got, the more amazing the sight. The color changed from brown to red & the definition of the caves became clearer. I was surprised at how much foliage covered the area. There were some tiny flowers in varied hues, but they were hard to see. There were stunted bushes, gum, & eucalyptus trees. We were told the land was originally barren. Ulhuru is really the top of an ancient mountain range as is Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). Wind & weather eroded the limestone & sandstone & filled in the land almost to the top of the mountain. There was once a sea where land is now & you can clearly see the rippled etching of the water on the stone. The water receded, there was an earthquake, & voila! you have a tourist attraction.
We walked a trail on a self-guided tour & met up with the legendary flies. We were glad that my cousins gave us netting to wear under our hats. I wonder if they have bats here? In Cairns, there are so many bats you hear them squealing in the trees as you walk at night and they swoop across streets hunting prey. Many of are flying foxes that are a pain to fruit farmers. Farmers have put netting over their trees & bushes to keep bats away.
In the middle of it all, we met a Jewish couple from New York & Boca Raton, Fla. She noticed the shirt David had on from Temple Israel & it was instant Jewish geography time. In the end, we knew no one that she knew. Her husband was with her and kept saying, “That’s enough. We have to go now.” They were on their way to see a predator show. As for me, I would rather not know what’s out there.
Dreamtime
In late afternoon we went on a walk guided by two aborigine women who spoke in their language & a white woman who translated. We heard this tribe’s story of creation & came to a better understanding of “dreamtime.” There are 250 aboriginal tribes in Australia each separated by its own language. These native women spoke six tribal languages & English. The Tjukurpa of this tribe is unique to it. We expanded our understanding of Tjukurpa to mean laws, dreamtime, & creation. Our use of the word “creation” is different than theirs. It doesn’t mean the creation of a place & the beings that inhabit it. It refers to the creation of the system that insures that the world & its inhabitants co-exist in harmony. There are laws for everything & stories to explain the laws. Everything that’s hunted, gathered, & eaten has its own law for how to kill it, cook it, & with what it may be eaten. As “shatnes” in Judaism prohibits the mixing of certain fibers, so their law prohibits the mixing of certain grains. Their laws provide a clear path for living life to its fullest while preserving the world for those to come. It is the Tao. It is the 613 commandments. It is Rashi & Midrash. It is halachah.
Aboriginal Life
This people are said to go back 40,000-60,000 years. Unlike us, they have only had 200 years to adjust to the new civilization that was thrust upon them. They have no numbering system & no concept of time or age. They traditionally divide their lives by gender with certain tasks & taboos for each. They’re taught the way life should be lived, but aren’t forced to follow Tjukurpa. They believe in total free will & won’t even tell a child not to touch fire. They see it as a learning experience. Instead of repeating the admonition it only takes a child one touch to learn. Merging into white society is almost impossible given this philosophy. The white guide explained that if the children don’t want to go to school, there’s no one there to compel them to. The same goes for a work ethic. They’re slowly learning to change & adapt for survival. Perhaps they’ll create new laws by which to live. The two native guides were happy to tell us it was easier to shop at the grocery store than dig for grubs with a stick. Their culture has been relegated to weekend events at which they revisit their history & teach it to their children.
It became clear why aborigines didn’t take a firmer stand regarding the climbing of Ulhuru. They won’t tell white men what to do, they’ll only advise them. Climbing the rock is very dangerous & there’s nothing sacred about the top. Each year at least one person dies from a fall on the Rock. Aborigines think of tourists as guests in their house & are saddened & distressed that some of their guests will die. But climbing is the decision of the guest.
It was also evident that native women didn’t think highly of the “white man bus driver tours.” They joked about how whites don’t know the story of the Rock & make up ridiculous names for the shapes that emerge from the massive block of stone. That’s exactly what Ulhuru is. It’s a story to be read from the Rock. The story was taught to the people over thousands of years using the walls of the cliffs & caves as blackboards. The story is that a really angry water python woman came to Ulhuru to help her nephew who was being attacked by poison-snake-man. Once she helps her nephew, she & poison-snake-man become one. In their union, they become the rainbow serpent. I asked the guide if she knew of any connection to the rainbow serpent of the Mayans & she did not.
We were shown drawings of boomerangs & learned that the boomerang, a tool used only by men, was also a musical instrument. You need two of them to make music & elders make them for the young men whom they will teach to play. As far as photography goes, there are sites that they ask you not to photograph. They don’t want the site & its meaning to be separated from the image. Our particular guides gave us permission to take their photos. They keep albums of those snapshots with tourists. They each had business cards with an address where we could send a copy of the pictures.
On our way to dinner tonight, we got an answer to our bat question. There are tons of them here too. I guess this is just a batty country. It’s full of contrasting behavior & contradictions. For example, the waitress brought my coke to me with her hand over the top of the glass. When I asked for a straw, she carried it to our table holding it with tongs.
Toby
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