Banning climbing Ayers Rock/Uluru does nothing for Aboriginal reconciliation

Banning climbing Ayers Rock/Uluru does nothing for Aboriginal reconciliation
Julian Tomlinson, The Cairns Post, November 9, 2017

Already in response, other Aboriginal advocacies are calling for more natural landmarks to be closed to non-Aborigines, such as Mt Warning in northern NSW.

Closing The Rock to climbers will likely set off a domino effect of similar exclusion orders around the country.

Locally, entry to Mossman Gorge is controlled by the Kuku Yalanji people. They say entry needed to be managed to prevent damage by visitors.

The same can’t be said for the hardy chunk of sandstone in Central Australia. Instead, it’s being closed for “cultural reasons”.

In the Daintree, the State Government is looking at increasing the role of Aboriginal culture in managing the area. This includes limiting entry to “sacred sites”.

Those proposing closures say indigenous law should trump the law of the land.

For instance, chairman of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park board of management at Ayers Rock, Sammy Wilson, said of the native people: “Anangu have a governing system but the whitefella government has been acting in a way that breaches our laws.”

This is absurd and divisive.

Read the remainder via the link above.

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