What is Tjukurpa?
Tjukurpa is the Anangu word for the foundation of their culture, including law, knowledge, religion and the creation of the world by ancestral beings. It guides relationships between people, land and all living things.
Anangu, the Traditional Owners of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, explain that Tjukurpa is not just stories about the past. It is a living system of law that sets out how people should behave, how to care for country and how to share resources.
Tjukurpa is often translated into English as the Dreaming or Dreamtime, but many Anangu feel these words do not capture its full meaning, as it describes the past, present and future at once.
Tjukurpa at Uluru
Features of Uluru record the activities of ancestral beings such as Kuniya, the woma python, Liru, the poisonous snake, Mala, the rufous hare-wallaby people, and Lungkata, the blue-tongue lizard man.
Some Tjukurpa is public and shared with visitors through signs, tours and the Cultural Centre, while other knowledge is restricted to initiated men or women.
Similar concepts exist across Aboriginal Australia under different names, such as Jukurrpa among the Warlpiri and Altyerre among the Arrernte. Tjukurpa is why Anangu asked visitors not to climb Uluru.
Did You Know?
Anangu say that Tjukurpa is the law that gives meaning to everything at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.