London: A group of Aboriginal Australians have performed a traditional dance and song before the UK's King Charles III, at London's Australia House, to mark the 40th anniversary of the handback of the Uluru National Park. Charles attended the commemoration at the diplomatic mission in central London, where he met nine Aboriginal representatives and owners of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, which Charles himself visited back in 1983, accompanied then by Diana, Princess of Wales.
According to Ghana News Agency, Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, and Kata Tjuta, also known as The Olgas, are large geological rock formations reaching up to 500 metres in height, and make for one of central Australia's most iconic landscapes. Included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, they are sacred sites of the Anangu people, the indigenous people of the area, who reclaimed ownership of the land after the Australian government handed back the title deeds on October 26, 1985.
The celebration on Thursday included a traditional dance and song performance by the nine Anangu representatives, some of whom had never visited the UK before. Sammy Wilson, whose words were translated into English by fellow Anangu representative Harry Wilson, said: 'When you heard us singing our song, it's from our grandmothers and grandfathers. That place has always been ours, from a long way back. Our land is sacred. That is the song we were singing.'
The Anangu people have lived in the area around Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park for more than 30,000 years, the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith, said in his commemoration speech.
