Central Land Council

Practical Reconciliation: Uluru climb closure integral part of the cultural experience

The Central Land Council fully supports the decision by the traditional owners and the managers of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park to close the climb and says this is a chance for Australians to demonstrate 'practical reconciliation'.

CLC Director David Ross said traditional owners continually tolerate a practice with which they disagree and should be allowed to exercise their traditional responsibilities in peace.

"This issue is the essence of practical reconciliation for Aboriginal people. This is self determination - not being shoved around or coerced by other people's political and economic motivations," Mr Ross said.

" It shouldn't be forgotten that Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park was the second property in the world to be put on the World Heritage list as a cultural landscape and for its living traditions and beliefs of outstanding universal significance.

"To accept the benefits of that, while undermining the reality which produced it, is foolish in the extreme. Without this living tradition the value of the Park is severely depleted except as a purely visual phenomenon.

" Closing the climb for twenty days is nothing in the scale of things. Day after day and year after year the custodians bear the anxiety and distress caused by people climbing the rock in defiance of Aboriginal law and of the injuries and deaths which continually happen on Uluru," he said.

"However, they understand that the profound meaning the site holds for them is not shared by a small proportion of the general public and they have made considerable concessions. " Tourism operators who complain about loss of revenue should acquaint themselves thoroughly with the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park Plan of Management which explicitly states that climbing is discouraged and that the climb can be closed.

" The senior traditional owner who passed away was the only member of the Board of Joint Management who had been there since its inception in 1986. His importance as a leader of the community is inestimable and his absence from the Park will be deeply missed by tourists and Park Management. He was the man people went to whenever there was a problem and closing the climb is a proper way of showing respect," he said.

16 May 2001