Candy Clan in a Caravan: Uluru

Happy birthday to my beautiful, amazing, strong, loving wife! I wanted to bust it to wake up at Curtin Springs so that we were not far from Uluru for an easy drive and lazy day for Prue.

As a special treat for the birthday girl we had sunset drinks at nibbles overlooking Uluru and then we went into the field of lights exhibition which was absolutely amazing. The British artist, Bruce Munro, is very well known for his large scale light based installations he says “The Field of Light at Uluru represents the convergence of the land and culture and my own re-learning. It’s composed so that the viewer’s experience is from a series of random pathways through the installation, each and any pathway representing traversal through time: my past, our present, Uluru’s timeless future.”

The next day I woke early and drove out to Uluru to run around it as the sun rose. It was an experience that gave me so much energy and at the same time slowed something down in me.
There are many cultural stories around this rock that some are only passed down by and to certain people. One story that I read at the entry of the Mutitjulu Waterhole:

Minyma Kuniya, the woma python woman cam from the east near Erldunda. A bad feeling grew in her stomach – something was wrong. She had to go to Uluru. Kuniya created inma (ceremony) to connect her eggs together. She carried them to Uluru in a ring around her neck and placed them at Kuniya Piti. Meanwhile, Kuniya’s nephew arrived on the other side of Uluru. He was being chased by a war party of Liru (poisonous snake) men from out near Kata Tjuta. He had broken the law in their land and they were sent to punish him. The Liru men threw spears at Kuniya’s nephew. One pierced his thigh and many others hit the side of Uluru. One Liru warrior, Wati Liru, was left to care for the injured python man. But he did not do his duty and left the injured man on his own. Minyma Kuniya realised that her nephew had been injured and was not being cared for properly. She raced to Mutitjulu Waterhole and saw Wati Liru high up on the cliff. She called out to him about her nephew, but he only laughed. Minyma Kuniya placed her wana (digging stick) upright in the ground in front of her. Kneeling down, she picked up handfuls of sand and threw it over her body, singing and making herself stronger. She was creating inma (ceremony) to help her confront Wati Liru. Kuniya moved toward Liru singing and dancing akuta – a dance step used by women ready to fight. Kuniya hit him once over the head with her wana. He fell down but got back up. She hit him a second time and killed him. Kuniya then went and found her injured nephew. She picked him up, dusted him off and carried him to Mutitjulu Waterhole. She created inma and combined their two spirits into one. They became Wanampi, the rainbow serpent, who lives in and protects the waterhole today.

This story teaches a traditional form of payback punishment – a spear to the thigh. The punisher must then look after the injured person until they are well enough to care for themselves. It also teaches about women’s intuition and that a woman may use force to protect her children. This is a powerful story, Kuniya is a powerful woman.

We spent the day going in and out of a few different sites around Uluru.