Uluru sacred sites tour: the places at the base

Before the first stop, it helps to know what the word sacred means at Uluru. Parks Australia describes Tjukurpa as the foundation of Anangu culture, a religious philosophy that ties people to the land and to their ancestors.⁷ The stories also work like maps, telling people where important places lie, how to move between them and where water and food can be found.⁸ The rock is not a backdrop to that law; it is part of it.

Anangu speak of Tjukuritja, the physical evidence of the ancestral beings' activities that is still visible in the land.⁹ A crack, a cave or a mark on the rock face can therefore be a record of events, and walking around the base means following those stories on the ground.¹⁰ Tjukurpa is never written down; it is memorised and passed to the right people like an inheritance.¹¹

Not everything is shared. Anangu share many details with outsiders, but the secret and sacred knowledge stays with senior people and has to be protected.¹² Parks Australia goes further and asks visitors not to repeat or re-tell Tjukurpa stories at all.⁵ That is why this guide names places and tells you how to behave there, and leaves the stories themselves to the people who hold them and the rangers who tell what may be told.

The second sacred walk most visitors meet is on the other side of the rock. The Mala walk runs from the Mala carpark to Kantju Gorge, and it is the route used by the daily ranger-guided walk as well as most Uluru tours.² It is 2 km return, grade 2, takes about 1 hour 30 minutes and has water and toilets.²⁰ Along it are caves linked to the Mala, the rufous hare-wallaby people, among them one known as the kitchen cave.²³

Parks Australia counts the Mala story among the most important in Tjukurpa.²³ At the end of the path, Kantju Gorge is enclosed by sheer walls and has a deep calm that many walkers remember more than the rock face itself.²⁹ Rangers lead the walk for free each morning: in the cooler May to September season they set off at 10.00 am, and in the warmer October to April season at 8.00 am.²⁵

For anyone hoping to see an Uluru sacred site at sunset, the gorge has a second life. The Mala walk is crowded with tours mid-morning and late afternoon but surprisingly quiet at sunset, and the setting sun strikes the gorge directly, lighting it a fiery red under a deep blue sky.^24,30 If you have your own car and have already watched a sunset from a viewing area, the gorge is a moving alternative for a second evening.

Some places at the base are off limits to cameras. To Anangu, the features of the rock at these places carry meaning in the way scripture does, and are meant to be seen in person, on site, by the right people only.⁵³ For that reason, photographing those sites is prohibited, and signs in the park mark where they are.^3,4 Inside such areas you can still photograph plants, animals and people, but not the rock.

Between Kantju Gorge and Kuniya Piti runs the rock's north-east side, as sensitive as anywhere in the park.⁵⁴ Ironically, that side faces the hotels and many evening experiences outside the park.⁵⁵ Photograph it only from far away, wide, leaving out the top-left details.⁵⁶

The kindest light for that side comes in the hour or two before sunset, according to Parks Australia, as shadow covers the sacred features by itself.⁵⁷ At the sunset areas, the request is to show the rock whole rather than zooming in on details.⁵⁸ Ask before photographing Anangu, and leave drones at home: they are banned in the park and penalties apply.^45,59

A few habits make a large difference. Restricted places, whether sacred, ceremonial, burial grounds or someone's home, are off limits to both feet and cameras.⁶³ Staying on marked tracks and keeping off rock formations and boulders is the simplest way to avoid walking into a sacred area by mistake.⁴⁴ A friendly palya, the Anangu greeting that also means thank you and goodbye, is always welcome.⁴⁶

Conversations follow their own rhythm. Anangu value careful listening, and a silence after your question usually means someone is thinking about the answer, not ignoring you.⁶⁴ The Anangu community near the waterhole, which shares its name, needs a permit or permission to enter, and tours stop at the waterhole walk.⁶⁵

The land you are walking on belongs to Anangu, who lease it to the Australian Government and manage it jointly with Parks Australia.⁶⁶ The title deeds were handed back at the Mutitjulu oval on 26 October 1985.⁶⁷ UNESCO listed the park in 1987 and recognised its cultural landscape in 1994, and 25% of every park pass goes straight to Traditional Owners as lease payments.^68,69,70