Hymns ring out over Uluru on

'bittersweet' handback anniversary

While the general mood was one of celebration, the issues still faced by
Indigenous Australians were not ignored

Aboriginal women perform a traditional dance near Uluru on Sunday. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Indigenous Australians-Helen Davidson at Uluru-Sunday 25

October 2015

As the sun dropped lower in the sky and a storm rumbled ominously
overhead, the central Australian womens choir gathered on the red dirt,
Uluru forming their backdrop, and began to sing. Harmonised hymns,
brought over by missionaries and translated into Aranda and Pitjantjatjara,
rang out across the crowd.
The singers, from half a dozen choirs across the central desert, were among
hundreds of people who had travelled from as far as Kimberley in Western
Australia to commemorate the 1985 handback of Uluru and Kata Tjuta to
the Anangu people.

On Monday it will be 30 years to the day since the governor general Sir
Ninian Stephen handed the lands known formerly by non-Indigenous
Australia as Ayers Rock and the Olgas back to the Pitjantjatjara and
Yankunytjatjara people, the Anangu.

An Indigenous Australian man paints a fellow elder before performing a

dance at the anniversary celebrations. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
The handback of one of Australias most culturally important landmarks was
controversial at the time and faced strong opposition, including from the NT
government. But while this week was one of celebration, the issues faced
by Indigenous Australians, including those in the community of Mutitjulu,
were not ignored.
Sammy Wilson, chairman of the board of Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park,
had earlier told media that government funding was misdirected. He added
that the controversial Ayers Rock resort was sucking everything like a
vacuum cleaner from Anangu towards the resort and Anangu people were
missing out.
On Sunday afternoon at Talinguru Nyakunytjaku, south-east of the rock, a
moment of silence was held for those who fought for the land but did not
live to see the event. The federal indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion,
described the day as bittersweet.

While he praised the handback of the land to those who had always owned
it ( the Australian government then leased it as a national park for 99
years) he said successive governments had failed to fulfil one implicit
part of the agreement: that the Anangu would have a better life because of
it.

Tourists take photos of Uluru. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

By and large, the rock looks the same, and tragically, so does Mutitjulu,
said Scullion. So what we must do with this celebration is acknowledge the
implicit part of the agreement 30 years ago has simply not been
completed.
He said the undertaking from here on should be for the local authority and
cultural government to work with leaders of territory and federal
government to right that wrong. Those opportunities have never been
provided in the way that they should have been, the minister said.
Despite their connection to Uluru and Kata Tjuta, there are few people from
the community of Mutitjulu working at the resort, despite about 250
Indigenous people being employed there.
It remains a community of high unemployment, and only one tour company

in the park is Indigenous-owned the Uluru Aboriginal Tours, operated by

Wilson.
Scullion attended the event to represent both the prime minister, Malcolm
Turnbull, and the environment minister, Greg Hunt. All speeches were
translated into the local Aboriginal language.

Rita Jingo, from the Mutitjulu community, and her daughter pose for a
photo near Uluru on Sunday. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, also spoke of the dispossession of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and efforts to make
amends. There is more we must do, there is further we must go. It is for
us, our generation, to build the connection between equality under the law
and opportunity in life, he said.
Speaking after the event, Shorten told Guardian Australia there should have
been at least constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians by now.
There has been a lot of good progress, too, so its not a matter of cup halffull or half-empty, but its a matter of being truthful, he said. What
happened here 30 years ago was remarkable but weve got to follow
through now, with the jobs, the development, the opportunity for people to
have some economic power in their lives.

Barbara Tjikatu, whose husband accepted the title deeds in 1985, told the
crowd she had been speaking strongly for this country for very many
years.
Id just like to take the chance to appeal to the government bodies out
there, Tjikatu said. One of my biggest concerns is those young men of our
country and the wonderful pops they have in working here and looking after
their country that need resourcing. Id really like to get some honest
commitment for the housing, the education and the employment here, and
I dont want to talk too long, she said.

Car wrecks are seen on the outskirts of the Mutitjulu. Photograph: Dan
Peled/AAP
Thats what I want equality for the Aboriginal people out here and the
work that they do.
As the evening drew closer crowds settled in the red dust to watch the
traditional inma, performed by Anangu women and women from the
Kimberley region. A group of rowdy children, painted up for their
performance, yelled excitedly backstage as they saw Djuki Mala the
Chooky Dancers preparing for their show.

Shortly before taking the stage to close the festivities, the singer Dan
Sultan told the Guardian he had been at the original handback with his
parents as a toddler.
I dont really remember much ... but yeah its good to be here. Ive been
lucky enough to come here and perform here a few times now throughout
the years, but to be at the handover [anniversary], its great, he said.
Its obviously really important to these people, this is their country, this is
their spirit. Im from even more central Australia, north of here, so Im as
much a guest as anyone. I feel very honoured to be here. Its very
humbling.
Commemorations for the anniversary continue on Monday in Mutitjulu.
Posted by Thavam