Valuing Uluru As An Aboriginal Cultural Landscape

Title: Valuing Uluru as an Aboriginal Cultural Landscape By Eliya El Khoury Heritage and its management assessment 1 Macquarie University Introduction The United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO) (2012), define cultural landscape as â€Å"cultural properties that represent the combined works of nature and of man.† It is a broad concept that can be referred to as the appearance of the earth’s surface, and its depiction in arts, human cultures and general territories (Steve Hoelscher 2007, p. 76). There exist many cultural landscapes that represent different regions from around the world, and to date there are 88 cultural landscapes and 4 trans-boundary properties on the world heritage list (UNESCO) (n.d.). Uluru, formerly known as Ayers rock, is a dome shaped sandstone monolith located in the Uluá ¹Å¸u – Kata Tjuá ¹ ¯a National Park in the Northern Territory state of Australia (UNESCO) (n.d.). It traditionally lies in the aboriginal lands of the Anangu people. Uluru was added to the world heritage list year 1987, and was classified as a cultural landscape due to its rock formations, caves, water springs, fauna and flora and its ancient aboriginal paintings. Uluru is a very scenic location; the rock itself is notable to its color alteration according to the time of day. Uluru is also home to a great number of plants, birds and animals, even though it lies in a desert environment (Australian Department of the Environment, Parks