Ayers Rock and Sacred Respect

I recently visited Ayers Rock (Uluru) which is a spiritual holy ground for the Aboriginal People of Australia.  I, myself, am a spiritual person and believe in cosmic energy; good, bad, varied to culture, it doesn't matter to me.  There is energy out in the universe to be absorbed especially in a place like Uluru and I want to soak up as much of it as possible.

I can respect that not everyone feels the same way as I do.  In fact, I know many people who don't believe in religion or spirituality at all.  This is completely ok and I have no desire to sway people either way.

Some people visit Uluru just to say they've seen it.  Some people visit Uluru because they've heard about it and are curious.  Some non-believers leave believing and others walk away completely unaffected.  Again, for me all of this is respectable.

What I can't handle is the disrespect people can so heavily show towards something that is so powerful and rich in culture just because they don't believe and feel the need to express themselves however they see fit.  For me, this experience came in the form of an Australian man who went on vacation to Uluru and to my face called Ayers Rock "just a rock in the middle of nowhere" and then continued to describe his plans of climbing the rock and cracking a beer open when he got to the top.  Right after I had just told him how special being at Ayers Rock was for me.

Now the thing about Ayers Rock is that it's a sacred ground that the Aboriginals strongly asked not to be climbed.  There are plans in the next 10 years for the climb to be closed but in the mean time all the locals can do is bring awareness to why it's harmful to climb.

I had the amazing fortune to meet a 79 year old Aboriginal Elder (equivalent to an Indian Chief) that described the effects that climbing the rock actually has.  Because Ayers Rock is in the middle of the desert the rain is very infrequent.  When it does rain there is an entire ecosystem that depends on the pools of water that collect at the base of the rock.  When people climb the rock they track up rubber from their shoes and the road, sweat, suntan lotion, bug spray and even at times human waste as there are no toilets at the top of the rock.  All of this pollution sits and collects at the top of the rock until it rains at which point all of this pollution is pushed down the sides of the rock and into the pools of water that so many creatures and plants rely on.  There is a clean white stripe up the side of the Ayers Rock where people have climbed the rock and the natural colour has been stripped.  It's so sad to see.

Another important reason is the respect to the Aboriginal culture.  The elder that I met spoke of how Aboriginals measure wealth in the size and health of their families.  They fear that if they allow their children to climb the rock and the children fall off they will lose all the wealth they have gained.  It's said that you can still see the skin of one of the original Aboriginals who climbed the rock.  Even for their own people it's unacceptable to climb.

It's also asked that you don't take any part of the rock with you to preserve the natural habitat.  A really interesting bit we learnt is that people who have taken pieces of the rock with them in the past have actually mailed them back with stories of bad luck that followed them.

Knowing all of this information, this Australian guy still couldn't care less and wasn't interested in hearing anything that would sway him from his decision to climb the rock just because he could and was happy to ignore the wishes of the locals.  He believed because he was an Australian he could do as he pleased and had every right to disregard the thousands of years of history before him.

This is one example of how so many people and places are disrespected because of a lack of empathy, understanding, concern or just basic respect.  How many important parts of history lose their significance because people just don't care.

It broke my heart watching people climb Ayers Rock with triumphant looks on their faces like they had just made another conquest rather then just literally stepped on and helped erode 25,000 years of history.  People sliding down the side like they were at an amusement park.

I ask everyone who reads this to make at least one attempt to be open to an idea that previously you wouldn't consider.  I'm not asking that you change your opinion but that you're open to new ideas and experiences.

I truly believe being open to any possibility or at least open to hearing about other ways of life and doing things builds a much stronger foundation for respect.  Understanding other people's perspectives, approaches, backgrounds and ways of life will simply assist in a kinder, more approachable world.