The Creation Period
The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, traveled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Anangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja.
The journeys and activities of the creator beings are recorded in the landscape. Sites where significant events in their story took place are linked by what we call, iwara (paths or tracks). Some of the sites are so very significant that they are known as 'sacred sites'. Today our people still know where these sites and these iwara are and where they go although there is no physical road. Our grandmothers and grandfathers teach us this.
The iwara (tracks) link places that are sometimes hundreds of kilometres outside the Park and beyond Yankunytjatjara/ Pitjantjatjara country. So they are significant to other groups of indigenous people too.
For example, the Mala Tjukurpa involves three groups of Mala (rufous hare-wallaby) 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 Kuniya (Woma Python) from hundreds of kilometres east of Uluru.
Many other Tjukurpa such as Kalaya (Emu), Liru (poisonous snake), Lungkata (blue tongue lizard), Luunpa (kingfisher) and Tjintir-tjintirpa (willie wagtail) travel through the Park. Other Tjukurpa affect only one specific area. Many exploits of Tjukurpa involve ancestral beings going underground.
Kuniya, the woma python, lived in the rocks at Uluru where she fought the Liru, the poisonous snake.
Anangu landscapes are therefore full of meaning. They represent creation stories and associated knowledge of Law, relationships, plants, and animals represented in the shapes and features of the land. This knowledge has been passed down between the generations from grandparents to grandchildren. With the knowledge comes responsibilities and obligations to care for the land and each other in the proper way.
When Anangu travel across the land they do so with the knowledge of the exploits of the ancestral beings. Their knowledge of the land, and the behaviour and distribution of plants and animals is based on their knowledge of Tjukurpa. The elder people recount, maintain and pass on this knowledge through stories, behaviour, rituals, ceremonies, songs, dances and art.
Tjukurpa is the basis of all Anangu knowledge. The deeper meanings of Tjukurpa, known to the old and most senior people, are the keys that underpin everything in Anangu life - knowledge, attitudes, relationships, economics, spirituality, physical and emotional well-being. Tjukurpa connects everything in life. Therefore changes to any part of the land or the relationships have ramifications for other things.
Quick links
See also
Key
Links to another web site
Opens a pop-up window