Palya, Little Boy

by Fabienne Ferber (Germany)

Making a local connection Australia

While traveling through Australia one thing I could not miss is the famous rock in the Red Centre: Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock. I could dive into detail as to why I travelled there on this paticular date, it is a funny story in itself. However let's just say a few events happened on a drunk night in Darwin which lead to me wanting to leave earlier. Originally I was supposed to leave Darwin in a few days but I changed my plans and started the journey down to Alice Springs the very next morning. It involved hours and hours and hours on a big red bus, Australias popular Greyhound. Taking a glance out the window was as unspectacular as anyhow possible. The view didn't change at all for almost the whole journey and could probably be best described as "nothing". A whole lot of nothing. As I finally made it to Alice Springs I had a few hours to settle in and prepare for my Uluru Tour leaving tomorrow morning. Tomorrow on the 27th of October 2019 at 5 am my tour guide will pick me up from the hostel and this unique Outback adventure will start. I have a lot of great impressions from my time there. I could tell you all about seeing the Milky Way or standing right in front of Uluru or even just the fun game nights with my tour group. They were eventful three days yet there is one particular event that stuck with me the most. I might have been the only one completely obvious to the date and its meaning: Yesterday was the day on which Uluru got closed for climbing. The Rock is way more than just a rock for many people in Australia. For the Indigenous people it is very sacred. Tonight a celebration ceremony will hold place with my tour group attending. Uncertain what to expect I was a little skeptical but nevertheless entered the area with many other people judging by the amount of cars around. It was smaller than I thought mainly just consisting of a few booths selling food and souvenirs or even giving them away for free. In front was a stage currently filled with an amazing choir. There was one thing I could tell: How happy everyone was. The Aboriginals have been waiting for this for an incredible long time. Uluru is their sacred place, some even described it as their "home". They have many stories and holy sites surrounding this 863m high rock. Some of them can only be shared with woman, some only with men. What they have in common is the long history. The Aboriginals are the traditional owners of the land around Ayers Rock. With all this in mind you might see WHY they were in such a good mood that night. The ceremony included moving speeches and a few shows. At one point me and a few of my travel companions decided to walk to a nearby plattform to get a hopefully great view of Uluru at sunset time. A few aboriginal kids probably no older than 6 years old were jumping and running along side us. Since I doubt they understood the true historic meaning of yesterdays climbing ban I assume the joy was just contagious. I felt someone grab my hand. It was a much smaller hand than my own. A look down revealed a little boy who seems to be about 4 years old. He looked up at me with brown eyes sparkling of joy and started singing a song while still holding onto my hand and skipping up the small hill. I smiled down at this small kid. I tried saying hello to him and ask him for his name. Just then I realized that he probably did not speak any English. There was not much (to be excact just one word) I knew in the local aboriginal language. I looked down at this happy little kid and for whatever reason felt so connected to him as I said hello again, this time in his language Palya, Little boy, One day you will understand the importance of this day for your culture.