Editing Uluru (section)

==Aboriginal myths, legends and traditions==
[[File:Tjamiwa's map of Uluru.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Tony Tjamiwa]]'s map of Uluru]]
{{Further|Aboriginal Australian religion and mythology|The Dreaming}}
As with many sites around Australia, there are stories from [[The Dreaming]] associated with Uluru that date back thousands of years. According to the Aṉangu, traditional landowners of Uluru:<ref name="CWLTH">{{cite web |url=http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/culture-history/culture/creation.html |title=The Creation Period |work=Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605003523/http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/culture-history/culture/creation.html |archive-date=5 June 2010 |url-status=dead| date=10 March 2020}}</ref>
{{blockquote|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, travelled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Aṉangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as ''Tjukuritja'' or ''Waparitja''.}}

===Creation of the rock===
There are a number of differing accounts given, by outsiders, of Aboriginal ancestral stories for the origins of Uluru and its many cracks and fissures. One such account, taken from Robert Layton's (1989) ''Uluru: An Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock'',<ref name="abhistuluru"/> reads as follows:
{{blockquote|Uluru was built up during the creation period by two boys who played in the mud after rain. When they had finished their game they travelled south to Wiputa ... Fighting together, the two boys made their way to the table topped [[Mount Conner]], on top of which their bodies are preserved as boulders. (Page 5)}}

Two other accounts are given in Norbert Brockman's (1997) ''Encyclopedia of Sacred Places''. The first tells of serpents who waged many wars around Uluru, scarring the rock. The second tells of two tribes of ancestral spirits who were invited to a feast, but were distracted by the beautiful Sleepy Lizard Women and did not show up. In response, the angry hosts sang evil into a mud sculpture that came to life as the dingo. There followed a great battle, which ended in the deaths of the leaders of both tribes. The earth itself rose up in grief at the bloodshed, becoming Uluru.<ref name="encycsacred">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Sacred Places |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofsa0000broc |url-access=registration |first=Norbert C |last=Brockman |publisher=ABC-Clio Inc |location=[[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]], California |date=June 1997 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofsa0000broc/page/292 292–93] |isbn=0-19-512739-0}}</ref>

===Other stories===
The Commonwealth Department of Environment's webpage advises:<ref name="CWLTH"/>
{{blockquote|Many other Tjukurpa such as Kalaya ([[emu]]), Liru ([[king brown snake|poisonous snake]]), Lungkata ([[blue-tongue lizard]]), Luunpa ([[kingfisher]]) and Tjintir-tjintirpa ([[willie wagtail]]) travel through [[Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National 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 Liru, the poisonous snake.}}

It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from the formation will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse.<ref name="rocktheft">{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/07/1046826515667.html |title=Rock theft brings bad luck |work=The Age |date=7 March 2003 |access-date=3 April 2007}}</ref><ref name="rocktheft2">{{cite news |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/strange-but-true/news/article.cfm?c_id=500835&objectid=10509543 |title=Uluru tourists return 'cursed' souvenirs |work=New Zealand Herald |first=Kathy |last=Marks |date=12 May 2008 |access-date=14 May 2008}}</ref>

====Mala story====
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One of the major stories associated with Uluru is the Mala story. In this, the Mala ([[rufous hare-wallaby]]) people came from the north, and decided to stay at Uluru for a while, and perform the ceremony known as [[inma]]. The men decorated and raised the ceremonial pole (''Ngaltawata'') and began inma, while the women gathered and prepared [[bush food]], storing seed cakes (''nyuma'') in their caves. The men hunted, made fires, and fixed their tools and weapons. Two Wintalka men approached from the west, and invited the Mala people to attend their inma, but the Mala people declined the invitation, as their inma had begun and could not be stopped. The Wintalka men went back and told their people, who got angry and created an evil spirit, in the form of an enormous devil-dog called Kurpany, in order to wreck the Mala inma. Kurpany approached the Mala people, changing form as he did so, including taking the form of a ghost (''mamu''). Luunpa (the [[kingfisher]] woman) spied him first, and warned the Mala people; however, they did not listen to her. Kurpany attacked and killed some of the men, and the remaining Mala people fled southwards, into what is now the state of [[South Australia]], with Kurpany in pursuit. This story continues among the Indigenous peoples of South Australia.<ref name=malastory>{{cite web | title=The Mala story | website=Parks Australia | url=https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/discover/culture/stories/mala-story/ | access-date=3 February 2023}}</ref>

Aṉangu believe that the ancestors still exist at Uluru today. Luunpa, now a large rock, keeps watch, while the men killed by Kurpany are still in their cave. Kurpany's footprints, heading eastwards and southwards, are still in the rock. The teaching from this story is that people need to heed warnings of danger, and to finish what they have begun.<ref name=malastory/>