"Unlucky" souvenirs returned to Uluru
Thu Feb 19, 9:15 AM ET
By Michelle Nichols
ALICE SPRINGS, Australia (Reuters) - To the unwary Englishman it was just a harmless little red pebble, picked up as a souvenir at the base of Uluru, the immense monolith in the central Australian desert once known as Ayers Rock.
"But since then, my wife has had a stroke and things have worked out terribly for my children -- we have had nothing but bad luck," he wrote when he sent the pebble back halfway around the world to its rightful home.
This was just one of hundreds of rocks returned to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park during the past decade, many with similar tales of woe linked by tourists to their decision to take home a souvenir from the sacred Aboriginal site.
"The general tenor of a lot of the responses is that the rocks are being returned because they bring bad luck," said Tony English, manager of the 132,500-hectare (327,400-acre) park in the red, desert heart of Australia.
"It is a reasonably impressive collection. Most of them are fairly small, around the size that you can pop in your pocket, but there has been a few larger items removed in the past."
Among the packages arriving almost daily at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park office, 275 miles south west of the town of Alice Springs, was a piece of rock weighing nine kg (20 lbs) that was returned by a German tourist.
"They're coming in from all over the world," English said.
AYERS ROCK
European explorer William Gosse named the red monolith Ayers Rock in 1873, but it became known officially by its Aboriginal name Uluru after it was handed back to its traditional owners, the Anangu people, in 1985.
The Anangu then leased the world heritage-listed area, which has sacred meaning to them, back to the Australian government for 99 years for use as a national park. Almost 400,000 visitors are expected there this year.
While Kata Tjuta -- the name of a nearby rock formation also known as The Olgas -- means "many heads", Uluru is simply a place name given to the monolith by the Anangu, one of hundreds of Aboriginal groups living across the vast continent.
They associate the park with many songs and stories passed down to them through generations, and believe the area is governed by powerful Aboriginal law that they must protect and support.
To them Uluru is like a cathedral and the route of the climb follows the path taken by the Mala men, the Anangu's ancestors, when they arrived at the rock thousands of years ago.
"Government law is written on paper. Anangu carry our Law in our heads and in our souls," they said in a statement.
For one young woman, Gail, whose nationality is unknown, her father's gift of several small rocks taken from Uluru was too much to bear.
"I was horrified because I know this is such a deeply spiritual place and what he did was probably offensive to you," she wrote in a letter to the Anangu people to return the rocks.
"I believe that my family is experiencing a lot of ill health and bad luck since then and, although people may laugh at my superstitious nature, I believe the stones are something to do with this. I will try anything to help my family."
English said he hoped the return of hundreds of rocks meant people were starting to respect Uluru as a sacred site.
"I am hoping the stories of bad luck -- whether real or perceived -- is maybe a signpost of hopefully a deeper notion of respect for Anangu culture," he said.
FATAL ATTRACTION
Visitors to Uluru may climb the steep 345-metre (1,100-feet) high rock, which has a circumference of 5.8 miles, but are strongly encouraged not to do so, English said.
"There is certainly a very strong message conveyed here in the park about respecting Anangu wishes about the rock and the park generally. People should be making an informed choice."
More than 60 people have died on the rock during the past 50 years, many from heart attacks while climbing the rock in soaring desert temperatures, but also from straying off the safety chain and falling on the steep, slippery surface.
In 1998, stringent guidelines were introduced to close the climb if rain was predicted, if temperatures were forecast to rise higher than 36 Celsius, or if it was windy at the summit.
The rock climb can also be closed for cultural reasons and in 2001 was shut for nearly two weeks in May as a mark of respect for the death of an Aboriginal elder.
"We are greatly concerned about your safety while on our land, because we want you to return to your families to share the knowledge of our culture that you have gained," the Anangu people said on the national park's website,
http://www.deh.gov.au/parks/uluru.
