uluru&
Kata Tjuta
Australia
Earth's Solar plexus chakra
Uluru (Ayers Rock) & The Olgas, Australia. Associated with energy, purpose, confidence and a sense of inner power.
Myths & Legends
Aboriginal origin stories or “Dreamtime” stories play an important role in Aboriginal art and are considered a place where every person exists forever. According to the Aboriginals of Australia, the “Dreamtime” preceded our own and was a time of creation when enormous mythical animals and heroes (gods) travelled across a land without form and created sacred sites.
These stories were spread by oral tradition over more than 60,000 years. These stories vary from region to region, and among the different Aboriginal groups . The stories exist to explain life, creation, the cosmos and the stars. Aboriginal Dreamtime stories are more than simply stories of the past. They are a fusion of past, present, and future all at the same time. They blend verifiable events from the past with lessons on morality and belief systems, detailing the way in which the land, animals, and people were created by spirits.
Traditionally the legendary Aboriginal origins and Aboriginal Dreamtime stories were not written down with pen and paper, but these Dreamtime stories, and the knowledge they contain, have been passed down through generations through oral tradition, art, songs, dances, and ceremonies. Songlines, or dreaming tracks, are the journeys taken by the creator spirits across the land or the sky during the Dreamtime or Dreaming.
Today these songlines remain as long distance paths across the landscape which feature a series of landmarks related to the events that occurred and there are traditional songs, dances, and folk stories describing the lines. These songs created a cognitive map of the world, and have been described as a mnemonic device. They are also related to the famous Aboriginal walkabout rites of passage.
Australian Aborigine Creation Myth
There was a time when everything was still. All the spirits of the earth were asleep - or almost all. The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth. The Father of All Spirits said to the Sun Mother,
"Mother, I have work for you. Go down to the Earth and awake the sleeping spirits. Give them forms."
The Sun Mother glided down to Earth, which was bare at the time and began to walk in all directions and everywhere she walked plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work the Mother rested, well pleased with herself. The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into the caves and wake the spirits.
This time she ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides. The bright light that radiated from her awoke the spirits and after she left insects of all kinds flew out of the caves. The Sun Mother sat down and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers. However once again the Father urged her on.
The Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her. Her heat melted the ice and the rivers and streams of the world were created. Then she created fish and small snakes, lizards and frogs. Next she awoke the spirits of the birds and animals and they burst into the sunshine in a glorious array of colors. Seeing this the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Sun Mother's work.
She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the sun.
The living creatures watched the Sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the west. However when she finally sunk beneath the horizon they were panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted them. All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed to them like a lifetime the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. The earth's children learned to expect her coming and going and were no longer afraid.
At first the children lived together peacefully, but eventually envy crept into their hearts. They began to argue. The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her home in the sky to mediate their bickering. She gave each creature the power to change their form to whatever they chose. However she was not pleased with the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; there were giant lizards and fish with blue tongues and feet. However the oddest of the new animals was an animal with a bill like a duck, teeth for chewing, a tail like a beavers and the ability to lay egg. It was called the platypus.
The Sun Mother looked down upon the Earth and thought to herself that she must create new creatures less the Father of All Spirits be angered by what she now saw. She gave birth to two children. The god was the Morning Star and the goddess was the moon. Two children were born to them and these she sent to Earth. They became our ancestors. She made them superior to the animals because they had part of her mind and would never want to change their shape.
Rainbow Serpent
Descended from the sky, the Rainbow Serpent appears in male, female, and hermaphroditic forms, and is both a creator of life associated with water, but also a destructive being if it made angry. The specifics of the Rainbow Serpent story vary according to location and particular features in the land or climate.
The Rainbow Serpent often lives in deep waterholes below waterfalls. The actions of the serpent create the animals and the features on the land. In one version Gorilla ate a great red kangaroo which was too tough to digest. He spewed it up and left it in the desert, forming the great red Uluru, a large red sandstone rock formation in Australia’s Northern Territory.
listening to our elders
Australia traditional storytelling, handed down from generation to generation, has always been part of the landscape. Since the beginning of time (the Dreaming) storytelling played a vital role in Australian Aboriginal culture, one of the world's oldest cultures. Aboriginal children were told stories from a very early age; stories that helped them understand the air, the land, the universe, their people, their culture, and their history.
Elders told stories of their journeys and their accomplishments. As the children grew into adults they took on the responsibility of passing on the stories. These stories are as much a cultural necessity as they are entertainment and are still passed on orally though many are now recorded in print, audio and video
who are the Anangu?
Aboriginal people have lived in the area around Uluru and Kata Tjuta for at least 30,000 years. For Anangu, their culture has always existed here. The Central Australian landscape (of which Uluru and Kata Tjuta are an important part) is believed to have been created at the beginning of time by ancestral beings.
Anangu life revolves around the Tjukurpa (sometimes wrongly referred to as the Dreamtime). To the Aboriginal people, this is the ancestral period of when the world was being formed. At Uluru, Mala (hare wallaby), Kuniya (woma python) and Liru (poisonous snake) are considered to be very important ancestors to the region.
The Mala Tjukurpa involves three groups of Mala people who travel from the north to reach Uluru. Two groups then flee south and south-east to sites in South Australia.
Kuniya Tjukurpa tells of the travels of the Woma Python from hundreds of kilometers east of Uluru. The Woma Python lived in the rocks at Uluru where she fought the Liri, the poisonous snakes.
These stories and many others have been passed down through thousands of years from generation to generation. The elder people recount, maintain and pass on this knowledge through stories, behavior, rituals, ceremonies, songs, dances and art.
Anangu paintings are created for educational and ceremonial purposes as well as telling of events that have occurred.
Several rock shelters at the base of Uluru provide visitors with the opportunity to observe evidence of this ancient tradition. The paintings are of considerable historic and cultural significance to Anangu, who continue to ensure their preservation and protection.
The symbols and figures in the caves at Uluru are similar to those found at many sites throughout Central Australia. These include geometric symbols such as concentric circles, figures representing animal tracks, and the outlines of animals. Artists can use these symbols to represent different meanings.
Before European colonization, Indigenous Australians spoke an estimated 700 dialects. These languages are as different and distinct from each other as English is to Russian and Chinese. Many of these languages are no longer used or are under threat of disappearing. It is estimated that there are only 20 to 50 languages still described as ‘healthy’ - that is, they are spoken to and used by children.
Anangu mainly speak Pitjantjatjara (pronounced as pitjan-jah-jarra) and Yankunytjatjara (yan-kun-ja-jarra) and some people speak up to six Aboriginal languages. Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara are dialects of the Western Desert language, the largest language group of Aboriginal Australia. The group includes about 4,000 speakers, and stretches northwest to Balgo, west to Port Hedland, south to Kalgoorlie, Yalata and Oodnadatta and northeast to Alice Springs.
Pitjantjatjara literally means the people who use ‘pitjantja’ to say ‘to come’ while Yankunytjatjara are the people who use ‘yankunytja’ to say ‘to come’. Anangu means ‘people’ in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara.
Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Climate change
The most significant impact of climate change on future tourism in the Red Centre will be increasing extreme heat. While average, daily minimum, and daily maximum temperatures will continue to increase for all regions in Australia, inland Australia will experience the greatest increases (CSIRO and BoM 2015).
In the last three years, 62% of international tourists visited Uluru-Kata Tjuta between October and March (Tourism Northern Territory 2017a), the hottest months. While climbing Uluru is now banned for cultural reasons (Norman 2017), climbing times were already becoming more restricted for safety reasons due to heat.
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park covers an area of 132,566 hectares within the Greater Sandy Desert bioregion of the Northern Territory. The park's landscape is dominated by the iconic massifs of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Uluru is 9.4 kilometres in circumference and rises about 340 metres above the surrounding plain. Kata Tjuta comprises 36 rock domes of varying size. One of the domes, rising about 500 metres above the plain (or 1,066 metres above sea level), is the highest feature in the park. These two geological features are striking examples of geological processes and erosion occurring over time.
The contrast of these monoliths with the surrounding sandplains creates a landscape of exceptional natural beauty of symbolic importance to both Anangu and non-Aboriginal cultures. The Uluru and Kata Tjuta massifs, rocky slopes and foothills contribute to the park's high biodiversity. The many other patterns and structures in the landscape reflect the region's evolutionary history and give important clues about limitations on natural resource use and management (Gillen et al. 2000).
Red Centre: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and other tourist destinations in inland Australia face increasing extreme heat and water scarcity.
In 2030 the Red Centre could experience more than 100 days above 35°C every year (19 days more than the current average). By 2090, there could be more than 160 days per year over 35°C.
(To convert temperatures in degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 (or 9/5) and add 32.)
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta landscape is a representative cross-section of Central Australian arid ecosystems. The main ecological zones in the park are:
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puli - rock faces and vegetated hill slopes
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puti - woodlands, particularly the mulga flats between sandhills
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tali and pila - sand dunes and sandplains
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karu - creek beds.
As a cultural landscape representing the combined works of nature and Anangu, the landscape of the park is in large part the outcome of millennia of management using traditional Anangu methods governed by Tjukurpa.
Anangu's knowledge of sustainable land use derives from a detailed body of ecological knowledge which includes a classification of ecological zones. This knowledge continues to contribute significantly to ecological research and management of the park. Anangu landscape management followed a traditional regime of fire management, and temporary water resources were husbanded by cleaning and protecting soaks and rockholes; Anangu landscape management methods are now integral to management of the park.
Aboriginal people have always been associated with Uluru. According to Anangu, the landscape was created by ancestral beings. Anangu are their direct descendants and are responsible for protecting and managing country. The knowledge to fulfil these responsibilities has been passed down from generation to generation through Tjukurpa. Looking after country in accordance with Tjukurpa is a prime responsibility shared by Parks Australia and Anangu within the framework of joint management.
It is this ongoing relationship with the land that led to the park being included on the World Heritage List for its cultural landscape values in 1994, the Commonwealth Heritage List in 2004 and the National Heritage List in 2007 (Director of National Parks 2000).
working together toward a common goal
Ever since Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was handed back to its traditional owners in 1985, the park has been jointly managed by Anangu and the Australian Government.
Anangu work with Parks Australia (a part of the Department of the Environment and Energy) to manage and care for the national park.
All management policies and programs aim to:
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maintain Anangu culture and heritage
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conserve and protect the integrity of the ecological systems in and around the park
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provide for visitor enjoyment and learning opportunities in the park.
Tjukurpa – Anangu traditional law, knowledge and religious philosophy – guides everything that happens in the park, just as it has for tens of thousands of years. This includes using traditional methods to conserve the park’s plants, animals, culture and landscapes.
Board of management
A board of management makes major policy and management decisions for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
The board is made up of 12 people:
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eight Aboriginal members nominated by the traditional owners
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one member nominated by the federal minister responsible for tourism and approved by Anangu
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one member nominated by the federal minister responsible for the environment and approved by Anangu
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one member nominated by the Northern Territory Government and approved by Anangu
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the Director of National Parks.
Parks Australia is responsible for implementing board decisions and handling the day-to-day management of the park.
how you can help uluru-Kata Tjuta
Anangu land management kept the country healthy for many generations. A lot of damage has been done since piranpa (non-Aboriginal) people arrived.
Today, Anangu work together with park rangers and scientists to look after the land, plants and animals according to traditional law. Piranpa (non-Anangu) rangers receive training in traditional land management.
Piranpa rangers bring scientific knowledge to the park. Young Anangu are training to be rangers. They are studying science as well as learning from the old men and women.
At Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park our conservation work is focused in two main areas – fire management and weed and feral animal management.
Help protect the Great Desert Skink (Tjakura)
Environmentally important and culturally significant to Anangu as a former resource and as part of Tjukurpa law, the endangered Tjakura is under threat from feral animals. Support ongoing tracking and monitoring activities to protect the Great desert skink (Tjakura) in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
fire:
element of the
solar plexus chakra
The element for the Solar Plexus is fire. Activating the fire within moderate body temperature helps in food digestion. It represents the color yellow that brings brightness and balance of energy.
When the Solar Plexus Chakra is in balance, a person experiences confidence is self-motivated and has a sense of purpose.
When surrounded by negative energy, he or she can suffer from low self-esteem, feel troubled making decisions, and have control issues.
Imbalances of the Solar Plexus can also cause fatigue, overeating, excessive weight gain especially around the stomach, digestive system disorders, hypoglycemia, and diabetes.
It is also known as representing the energy of the sun. The element fire ignites the light of consciousness that motivates us to strive towards success and good health. Spending too much time in the third chakra can cause burn out. However, not developing it can leave a person feeling weak, fearful, and inert.
The feelings of love and happiness that we feel in our hearts actually originate in the Solar Plexus Chakra and rise from there to the Heart Chakra.
The fire energy of the Solar Plexus Chakra is very important in digestion and in promoting efficient absorption of nutrients.
NUMBUK YABBUN (smoking ceremonies)
NUMBUK YABBUN (smoking ceremonies), are very important to Aboriginal culture.
When entering or leaving country they hold a NUMBUK YABUN (smoking ceremony). By burning the leaves of BOREEN (eucalyptus tree), specifically the acacia, they perform a cleansing ceremony. This burning also pays respect to country, the old people and the BURRINILIING (spiritual forbearers).
NUMBUK (burning) is also part of general ceremonial purposes, both for NAIN (men) and NGOWAL (women).
The darker coloration often seen in sections of Jenolan’s caves, close to natural entrances, is the result of smoke from bushfires over many thousands of years. Many of these fires may have been deliberately lit.
Aboriginal people made extensive use of CANBEE (fire), but at a low level of burning, somewhat similar to the controlled burn offs of today.
CANBEE was used to drive game towards hunters, to drive snakes away, to encourage rejuvenation or re-growth of grass, to attract kangaroos and wallabies and to clear a path through dense undergrowth.
Source: https://www.jenolancaves.org.au/about/aboriginal-culture/aboriginal-use-of-fire/
Healing:
solar plexus chakra
IMBALANCE
When the Manipura Chakra is out of alignment, digestive issues arise. This can show up as improper processing of nutrients, constipation, or irritable bowel syndrome. Eating disorders, Ulcers, Diabetes, issues with the pancreas, liver, and colon are some of the symptoms of imbalance in this energy center of Manipura Chakra.
An imbalance can also cause severe emotional problems. Starting with doubt and mistrust towards the people in your life, continuing with a lot of worries about what others may think about you. Some people may experience low levels of self-esteem, searching for continuous confirmation and approval from others. This imbalance may lead to unhealthy attachments to people in your life.
Activating Manipura Chakra cultivates a willingness to gain insight into an understanding of power, individuality, and identity. In some people, a misaligned Solar Plexus Chakra can make skillful self-expression challenging. In some, it manifests as overly rigid or controlling behavior. In others, it breeds a victim mentality, neediness, and lack of direction or self-esteem to stand up and take positive action.
Source: https://www.arhantayoga.org/blog/manipura-chakra-healing-powers-of-the-solar-plexus-chakra/
Diabetes is "out of control" in Aboriginal communities
Diabetes has been described as "out of control" in Aboriginal communities [6] with some experts fearing the disease could "wipe out" the Aboriginal population across the world by the end of the century.
In the 1980s less than 0.5% of the Aboriginal population had diabetes. [7] 30 years later almost 30% of adults in Aboriginal communities have type-2 diabetes. [6][8] Diabetes is twice as common among Aboriginal people living in remote areas. [4]
Source: Diabetes at crisis levels in Australia - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/diabetes-at-crisis-levels-in-australia
PLANT-BASED DIET & EXERCISE
A plant based diet and regular, routine exercise are important in regulating insulin levels. Try cutting out things that are high in saturated fat, like pizza, eggs, meat and any processed or pre-packaged meals. You should also cut out alcohol.
If you tend to feel bloated with looser stools this can be a sign of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth secondary to diabetes. Make an appointment to see your primary care physician or a gastroenterologist to further evaluate these concerns.
Some cultures utilize colon cleanses a couple of times a year to maintain good digestive function and to control infectious processes like parasitic infections.
Regarding exercise, everyone should get at least 150 minute of exercise a week. If you do not have time during the week, try dividing up this time on the weekend.
MEAL PLANNING
The time you eat is also as important as what you are eating. Breakfast should be eaten around the time you wake up. Lunch should be around mid-day. Dinner should be 5-6 hours after lunch.
MEDITATION
Think of yourself as a toddler. You are just beginning to walk and talk. What are your first words? Are you having any difficulty with speech? What is it like for you to start walking? Is it easy? Do you have some challenges? Who is caring for you at this stage? Do you feel supported? What are your challenges? Picture yourself giving love to yourself if you are having trouble with walking or talking. As you fumble, you quickly forgive yourself and try again until you are successful. You do this calmly and with confidence that you will eventually get it. Finally when it is done, you stand tall and proud with a smile on your face.
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