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Anangu Tours
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Anangu ToursEncompassing an Ancient Way of Life Anangu Tours is owned and operated by Anangu , the traditional Aboriginal owners of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. They and their ancestors have lived as a part of this arid environment for many thousands of years. They have developed an intricate knowledge of the environment and with this understanding developed a sustainable lifestyle that is still practised today. Tjukurpa encompasses embraces and expresses all of this knowledge, it is the mechanism through which information is passed from generation to generation. Promote & Sustain Cultural Values Our tours are designed according to this ancient Law, they actively promote Anangu cultural values and thus assist Anangu to sustain Tjukurpa & their culture. This has a profound effect on the self esteem of Anangu staff employed to present their culture to visitor. It makes them proud of their culture and more eager about learning and maintaining their ancient Law. Good Business a key to Sustainable Business Anangu Tours is unique in that social, cultural, environment and commercial sustainability must be adhered to by Anangu Tours or the whole basis of our company would crumble. If our business is not a commercial success then it will have a major negative impact all on other aspects; however it will not be a commercial success unless we take particular care of our social, cultural and ecological environments. Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park is one of a handful of locations that is listed as a Cultural Landscape under UNESCO World Heritage Legislation. This listing highlights the unique living culture that exists and must carefully managed to be sustained. Encourage other to follow suit To ensure that tourism activities do not dilute this cultural base, Anangu Tours works with the tourism industry and encourages them to promote the cultural aspects of the Park to tourists, and many companies are rising to this challenge. Anangu Tours is at the forefront of these efforts, particularly in the promotion of Anangu cultural values to an increasingly interested market. Quality Interpretation is paramount The entirety of Anangu Tours activities and touring products are based upon interpreting country and culture: all products interpret some aspect of the people, their customs and culture, and their interpretation of the landscape of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. All activities are conducted with Anangu , for Anangu , with the approval of Anangu and on Anangu land. Face to Face contact Research from the Northern Territory Tourist Commission indicates that 68% of international visitors are interested in Aboriginal culture. This interest is growing every year. Visitors particularly want to meet and interact with Aboriginal people, and hear about their culture directly from them. Anangu Tours gives visitors this opportunity to meet with and interact with Aboriginal people, and hear first-hand of the cultural significance of Uluru. They know they are getting authentic information that our guides have learned from their grandparents since childhood. Indeed Senior Anangu guides are very strict about who is allowed to guide on tours, and their cultural information delivery is checked by them to ensure it is accurate and appropriate for the ears of visitors. Feedback, its working The delighted letters we get from visitors from all over the world and Australia indicates to us that their visit to Uluru is hugely enriched by hearing about the cultural values of the Park directly from its traditional owners. More importantly, the tourism industry has embraced our tours, and we are sold strongly by trade throughout the world. They are recognising that their markets are increasingly interested in learning more about the heritage and culture of Uluru, and are less interested in the “come, climb, conquer and go” mentality of previous times.
Anangu Culture - TjukurpaWhat is Tjukurpa? Tjukurpa or Wapar is our law, culture, history, and our world view all bundled into one. Our ancestors have lived around Uluru (Ayers Rock) for many thousands of years, maintaining Tjukurpa, the law of the ancestors. Our grandparents taught us our Tjukurpa, just as their grandparents taught them. The term, Tjukurpa/Wapar, includes many complex but complementary concepts. Tjukurpa/Wapar encompasses:
It is important that all visitors to our country gain an understanding of Tjukurpa, and it is our role to pass it on. As a visitor we help you learn from the beginning, just like our children, a little bit at a time, so you understand properly. We have designed our tours to give visitors of all ages the opportunity to learn Tjukurpa, and something of our lifestyle and history. Each of our tours focuses on a different Tjukurpa from a different ancestor. We want you to see what we see inside that big Rock, and take home some of our spiritual feelings for this place. Tjukurpa is the foundation of Anangu life. (There is not a single word in English that conveys the complex meaning of Tjukurpa. This is why at Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park we use the Pitjantjatjara word. The Traditional Owners who speak Yankunytjatjara use the word Wapar to mean the same complex body of Law and beliefs). Tjukurpa/Wapar Versus Dreamtime/Dreaming 'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming' is often used to describe the way Anangu see their origins. This translation, originally made by non-Aboriginal people, suggests the beliefs are unreal and changeable. Tjukurpa/Wapar is no dream, and there is no such word as 'Dreamtime' in Anangu language. Anangu are pleased that this interaction between themselves and the land has now been recognized as being of World Heritage value. 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 they are known as 'sacred sites'. Other sites are significant to the story but less 'sacred'. 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 peoples 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 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 Liri, the poisonous snakes. 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 from generation to generation. With the knowledge come responsibilities and obligations to care for the land and for 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 wellbeing. Tjukurpa connects everything in life. Therefore changes to any part of the land or the relationships have ramifications for other things. Anangu Moral Belief System Tjukurpa provides Anangu with a whole way of life. It includes rules, obligations, responsibilities and guidelines for relationships. Tjukurpa is the key that underpins Anangu attitudes and guides people's spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, moral and economic behaviour. It guides daily life through a series of symbolic stories and metaphors. The stories are not simple stories, but represent technically complex explanations of the origins and structure of the universe, and the place and behaviour of all elements within it. Understanding of such stories increases throughout their lives. For a child, a story may be a moral tale about greed, while for an adult it may provide complex explanations of ethical behaviour. Law Tjukurpa establishes the rules Anangu use to govern society and manage their land. It dictates correct procedures for dealing with problems, and penalties for breaking the Law. The proper way of doing things is the way things are done in Tjukurpa. Since the coming of non-Aboriginal people Anangu have had to modify some of the penalties under traditional Law. Anangu have also adapted non-Aboriginal law to help enforce Tjukurpa. Sacred sites are protected under Commonwealth and Northern Territory legislation and hunting and foraging rights are protected under the legislation and lease agreement with the Director of National Parks. The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Plan of Management protects Tjukurpa by using it as a guide for making management and policy decisions. Passing on Tjukurpa Tjukurpa is not written down, but is an oral culture. It is a cultural obligation to pass on this knowledge to the right people. Ceremonies play an important role in the passing on of knowledge. Specific people or groups in a kinship system have responsibility to maintain different sections of Tjukurpa track. This knowledge is carefully passed on to people who have inherited the right to that knowledge through, for example, their birthplace, or earned the right, for example, by progressive attendance at ceremonies. There are many interrelated devices for remembering Tjukurpa, such as specific verses of inma (songs), site-related stories, ritual dances or art. The iwara (ancestral paths) are recalled in long sequential lists of sites, sometimes including sites beyond country which has been visited, and including sites belonging to other people. Tjukurpa is also recorded in various designs and paintings, such as the 'dot' paintings of the Western Desert. These designs are often sacred and use and creation is restricted to specific groups or individuals. Some sounds are particularly associated with particular Tjukurpa. The sound of the bullroarer, for example, is associated with secret men's' ceremonies. It is for this reason that Anangu don't want bull roarer-like objects sold to tourists. Tjukurpa is extremely important to Anangu. They can share some of its information with non-Aboriginal people, but the secret, sacred information must stay only with senior Anangu. Tjukurpa in Park Management Tjukurpa is the foundation of the Joint Management arrangement at Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park Tjukurpa and Park Visitors While Anangu welcome visitors to the Park, they ask that you respect the importance of the place. For Anangu an essential part of 'keeping the Law straight' involves ensuring that knowledge is not imparted to the wrong people and that access to significant or sacred sites is not gained by the wrong people, whether wrong means men or women, Piranpa (non-Aboriginal) visitors or certain other Anangu. It is as appropriate for Anangu to care for these places as it is for non-Aboriginal religions to care for their churches, sacred precincts and relics. Even inadvertent access to some sites may be sacrilegious At Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park some areas are fenced off and sometimes photography is restricted to ensure visitors do not inadvertently contravene Tjukurpa restrictions. Within the bounds of appropriate access, Anangu want visitors to understand how they interpret this landscape through Tjukurpa/Wapar, and believe it will enhance their experience. Anangu explanations of the Park's landscape form the core of interpretive materials prepared for visitors, these include brochures and signs and the interpretive display at the Cultural Centre. Our Language - Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara On all of out tours we speak to you in our language and this is interpreted by a language interpreter. Our interpreters are good English speakers and we have trained them in our language. We work as a very good team. Anangu speak a range of dialects that collectively are called Western Desert languages. The most predominant of these languages spoken by the staff at Anangu Tours are Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara. Our languages are a very important part of our culture. We speak our language to keep it strong and to keep our culture strong. Speaking in our language empowers us! We say “Palya” On our tours you learn to say words like Palya, which means “that good, or ok” Anangu: what does this mean? We Aboriginal people who live in the Western Deserts of Central Australia call ourselves “Anangu”. Anangu Languages Anangu is the term that Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people from the Western Desert region of Australia use to refer to themselves. In the past the word Anangu had a more specific usage, being used to refer to a person or people as opposed to other non-human forms of life. Over the years, since contact with Europeans, it has come into common use in the region as a term referring to Aboriginal people, as opposed to non-Aboriginal people, as well as Aboriginal people who come from other parts of Australia. Many Mutitjulu Anangu speak Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara. Ngaanyatjarra and Luritja are also spoken in this region. These are all dialects of what linguists term the Western Desert Language, Aboriginal Australia's largest language group. Western Desert dialects are sometimes grouped together and conveniently, though inaccurately, labelled Pitjantjatjara. Anangu who speak Western Desert dialects can be found from Halls Creek and Balgo in the north of Western Australia through to Oodnadatta and Yalata in South Australia. The many different Aboriginal languages and dialects throughout Australia are evidence of the cultural diversity of Aboriginal peoples. Around 250 languages have been recorded and these languages are spoken by more than 500 named language groups. Pitjantjatjara word definitions: Anangu – Aboriginal person arn--ahng--oo Uluru – Ayers rock oo -- loo – roo Tjukurpa – creation law djoo--kurr--pa Mala – Rufous Hare Wallaby mahr--la Kantju – water hole at Uluru kahrn -- djoo Mutitjulu – water hole at Uluru moor-ti--djoo--loo Kuniya – Woma Python koon--e--ya Liru – poisonous snake lear—oo Pulya – everthing OK pal-ya Generally Pitjantjatjara words are used throughout the Park, however significant numbers of people in the Mutitjulu community speak Yankunytjatjara. |
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