Australia marks 30 years since Uluru returned to Aboriginal owners

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Oct 2015

Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, a large sandstone rock formation and the

 world's largest monolith situated in the southern part of Australia's Northern Territory

(AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

Australia on Monday marked 30 years since the world's largest monolith Uluru was returned to its traditional Aboriginal owners with the government admitting it has not lived up to commitments made back then.

The iconic symbol of the Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, was handed back to the Anangu people, the area's original inhabitants who have lived in the area for thousands of years, on October 26, 1985.

As part of the agreement, the government signed a 99-year lease to jointly manage the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park with the traditional custodians. More jobs and better living standards were expected to flow to the Anangu from the deal.

But Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said it had not always gone as planned.

Uluru, a giant red rock that rises 348m above Australian desert, is surrounded by

 thousands of sq. kilometres of desolate Outback and forms a key part of Aboriginal 

creation mythology (AFP Photo/Torsten Blackwood)

"The implicit part of the agreement is that Anangu people do better because of the things that would come here; they would have jobs, they would have a better life, they would have more choices," he told reporters.

"The deal isn't complete, those opportunities have never been provided in the way they should have been. We need to make that change and we need to make that now."

He said 254 of the 450 Anangu community members in the area were out of work, despite the fact the Ayers Rock Resort, 20 minutes away, welcomed 300,000 visitors a year.

"We can't accept that there's 254 people in Mutitjulu on the dole," Scullion said.

"We can't just accept glibly pretty low inter-generational levels of literacy and numeracy. We can't simply look at that and say it's OK.

"This should be a reminder to us all to refocus our efforts (across Australia)."

Uluru, the iconic symbol of Australian Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, was

 handed back to the Anangu people, the area's original inhabitants who have lived 

in the area for thousands of years, on October 26, 1985 (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

Uluru, a giant red rock that rises 348 metres (1,148 feet) above the desert, is surrounded by thousands of square kilometres of desolate Outback and forms a key part of Aboriginal creation mythology. It is also a World Heritage site.

While artist Malya Teamay told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he was pleased with the way tourists were learning about Aboriginal culture, others said the Anangu people seemed to be missing out on much of the economic activity.

Sammy Wilson, chairman of the board of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, criticised the government for directing much of its funding to the Ayers Rock Resort, which he said had become the focus of tourism and not the local people.

"It seems like a big vacuum cleaner is sucking everything away," Wilson said.

"This place (Uluru) is our culture here, but it (the funding) is ending up over there (at the resort); it should be here."

Australia marks 30 years since world's largest monolith Uluru returned to Aboriginal owners https://t.co/cEtFnzzDyE pic.twitter.com/PJ72v5vaiY

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 26, 2015

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Easter Island’s Carnival Magic Seduces Tourists

Jakarta Globe, Mike Leyral, Feb 22, 2015

People take part in dance contest in Hanga Roa on Chile's Easter Island (or Rapa
 Nui as its inhabitants call it) in the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 10, 2015 as part of the 47th
 edition of Tapati, an all-out 15-day contest between rival teams to crown a new monarch.
(AFP Photo/Gregory Boissy)

Far from home on Chile’s Easter Island for Carnival festivities, one middle-aged American woman throws caution to the wind. Stripped down to a thong, she lets a local reveler paint her chest.

“If someone had told me I would end up walking down the street almost naked, I would never have believed it,” the woman, who only gave her first name Susan, said.

Susan is one of a few thousand tourists who joined the Pacific island’s 9,000 residents for Tapati, an exuberant mix of music, dance and traditional sports that takes place for two weeks every February.

In the island’s only town Hanga Roa, revelers wait in a long line under the blistering tropical summer sun to take part in a time-honored ritual — a plunge in an old tub filled with clay.

A man known as Ale then spreads with his hand this reddish-brown natural paint on the bodies of other locals — and any tourist ready to participate.

Then, other lines form in front of tubs filled with white and yellow paint.

It’s time for the Rapa Nui — the Polynesian word for both the island and its residents — to paint symbols, inspired by the local Birdman legend, or characters from the long-lost Rongorongo system of writing.

Shortly after 5:00 p.m., a warrior blows into an enormous shell, signaling the start of the nightly parade, which features colorful floats and dancers in elaborate costumes, not unlike the massive Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.

The Tapati festival is at once a test of masculine strength and feminine grace celebrating Polynesian pride.

Easter Island is at the southernmost point of the so-called Polynesian Triangle — a Pacific region with Hawaii and New Zealand at the other corners.

The Unesco World Heritage Site is famous for its nearly 900 massive stone monuments — the Moai, carved by the Rapa Nui hundreds of years ago.

Rival teams are locked in an all-out contest to crown a new Tapati queen, who reigns for a year.

Numerous races and other contests take place — including reed board surfing, underwater fishing, fruit-carrying, a triathlon and horse races — but the nightly parades and dance competitions are the highlight.

Locals spend months carving out large wooden statues for the parade floats from Eucalyptus trees representing deified ancestors, such as the mystical Moai stone giants or the Birdman.

One night, a man draped in animal skins leads the way on his motorcycle, featuring a bull’s skull on the steering wheel.

Behind him, a woman dressed as a mermaid — her costume made of all-natural materials including a tail taken from a tuna caught just that morning — poses on a float decorated with huge wooden octopuses.

People originally from the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia play large pahu drums, while the Rapa Nui prefer horse jaws that make a light sound close to maracas when the teeth hit one another.

Some of the Tapati activities reflect a more Latin vibe taken from Chile — the elderly do battle to be the accordion king, as young people display their tango skills.

But the Polynesian dance competitions are fierce.

At the Hanga Vare Vare, the main festival stage in Hanga Roa, dancers sway sensually to the Polynesian drum rhythms.

Agence France-Presse

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Star-Gazing Tourists Flock to Africa’s Darkest Place

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Andrew Beatty, Dec 07, 2014

Active regions on the sun combine to look something like a jack-o-lantern's face,
 as pictured in this image provided by NASA on Oct. 8, 2014. In addition to the Namib
 desert, Hawaii and Chile have become renowned as astro-tourism hot spots,
according to AFP. (Reuters Photo/NASA/Handout)

The Namib Desert, Namibia. Not many tourist spots boast of being dark and difficult to get to, but the Namib desert is one of a number of remote “Dark Sky Reserves” drawing in stargazers for a celestial safari.

In the cool night air, an urbane Austrian tourist climbs rocky steps behind a chic hotel lodge and peers into a matte-black metal cylinder containing a spine of mirrors and lenses that reveal the universe.

“My mum wanted to set him on fire yesterday when he said, ‘We are looking ten million years in the past!’” he joked, pointing at the resident astronomer.

Not everyone is ready to face the enormity of the universe laid out so starkly by powerful magnification and the crisp desert sky.

But across the starkly beautiful Namib, hotels and lodges are betting that the stars will lead to more business rather than a spike in Galileo-esque witch hunts.

Many lodges have bought research-grade or “prosumer” telescopes and hired live-in astronomers as they try to lure tourists who want to gaze deeper into space and time.

According to consultancy Euromonitor, astro-tourism holidays are growing in line with increased urbanization, with Africa in particular “taking off”.

“Most people come here for the other activities, visiting the dunes or the nature reserve where you see all the wildlife. This is kind of a bonus,” said Misha Vickas, formerly a guide at a public observatory in Sydney, but now resident at the AndBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.

“Most people have never looked through a telescope and a lot of them have just never looked up.”

Vickas operates a “go-to” telescope, a device which, once calibrated, pivots on demand to any star or planet with little more than a mechanical hum and whir.

Not that a telescope is really needed in the Namib.

Across as much as 50 percent of the Earth the starry firmament is obscured by an orange glow of man-made light pollution.

During the day, the Namib’s sea of copper red and ecru yellow dunes and mountains glow blindingly, befitting the world’s oldest desert.

But in the inky night sky, the Milky Way seems much closer than Windhoek, a half day’s drive away across dirt track and sun-rippled single-lane carriageway.

Mars’s red glow, Magellanic clouds — dwarf galaxies outside our own — and assorted gaseous nebulae are all visible with the naked eye.

“The sky is particularly good to look at here, because the Milky Way, which is the main part of our galaxy, is usually very high overhead,” meaning light refraction is at a minimum, Vickas said.

“There is a lot to look at.”

Darkest places on earth

In 2012, a sliver of the central Namib the size of Mauritius — the NamibRand — was named Africa’s first “Dark Sky Reserve,” in recognition of the sky’s special allure here.

A handful of similar sites exist across the world, including Aoraki Mackenzie on New Zealand’s South Island and the Iveragh Peninsula on Ireland’s southwest coast.

Hawaii and Chile have also become renowned as astro-tourism hot spots.

“The darkest places are almost inevitably distant from populated places,” said John Barentine of the Arizona-based International Dark-Sky Association, which awards the designation.

“The glow of cities can often be seen several hundred kilometers away under good conditions.”

To rank sky quality, scientists use measurements like the Bortle scale.

An inner city is level nine, meaning you can see very little. Bright constellations like Orion may be faint or even invisible.

At the other end of the scale, in a first-class sky like the Namib, Venus and Jupiter shine bright, a white swathe of zodiacal light smears the sky.

Like parts of Chile, the Namib’s good weather and ultra-dry atmosphere make for clear nights and particularly transparent air all the way to the horizon.

“A visitor to NamibRand has a statistically high probability of experiencing that exceptionally dark sky on any given night,” Barentine said.

Namibia has just over two million people spread over an area roughly the size of Pakistan or Nigeria, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.

“NamibRand is located in one of the darkest accessible places that remain on Earth,” said Barentine.

“It is as close as you get to the way the world was long ago, before the invention and proliferation of artificial lights.”

That may be the only thing this remote region is close to — thankfully for stargazing tourists.

Agence France-Presse

Foreign tourists perform ritual at Borobudur

Antara News, Sunday, September 19, 2010 02:41 WIB

Magelang, Central Java (ANTARA News) - A group of foreign tourists performed a ritual called "The Cosmology of Life" to restore their spiritual sanity at Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, in Magelang, Central Java on Saturday (Sept. 18).

Borobudur at dawn – quiet and peaceful
(JP/Sunita Sue Leng)

"We call this `The Cosmology of Life` as we conduct a dialogue with nature through our conscience to explore our surroundings," the leader of the group, Kanwa Adikusumah, said.

The group comprises 28 people with different professions but most of them are artists. They hailed from European countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands,France and Spain.

The ritual took place in front of Manohara Pendopo (a pavilion-like structure) on the east side of the Borobudur temple with background music by zither and kecapi (traditional Indonesian string instrument) players.

They gathered under a Bodhi tree around which people had placed a pile of green coconuts, torches, and strewn rose petals.

The participants with some of them and the zither and kecapi players wearing white clothes and white headbands sat cross-legged under the tree.

They strew roses on the pile of coconuts under the Bodhi tree and moved freely following the sound of the Zither and kecapi.

"I use green coconuts as an `entrance` to perform this ritual. They capture the energy and the Javanese philosophy of the coconuts and nature," said Kanwa who has been developing the spiritual exercise through this method for the last 10 years.

He uses some media such as green coconuts, grass, pendopo, Bodhi tree, and canary trees in the spiritual exercise.

He said every place and ritual media has its own energy.

"We conduct the ritual in a tranquil state of mind to get spiritual sanity as guidance to live our lives," he said.

A monk at the Waisak ceremony, commemorating Buddha’s birth, death and
enlightenment, at Borobudur Temple. (JG Photo/Boy T Harjanto)

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Crowds converge on Stonehenge for solstice

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 20 June 2010 - 5:48pm | By RNW News Desk

(Photo: Flickr/Squirmelia)

Thousands are again expected to converge on Stonehenge on Monday, 21 June, to mark the summer solstice. Every year, the prehistoric site in southern England draws large crowds eager to celebrate the year’s longest day with music, dance and other revelry. Among them are tourists, curious onlookers as well as followers of spiritual sects. The event also attracts modern-day druids, followers of the Iron Age Celtic priest who used the much older site for their nature cult.

Solstice

A solstice happens twice each year, when the Earth’s axis is most tilted toward or away from the Sun, causing it to be seen at its northernmost or southernmost extreme. In the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs around 21 June, the winter solstice around 21 December.

Megaliths

The World Heritage Site is located in the English county of Wiltshire, some 130 kilometres southwest of London. A complex Neolithic and Bronze Age monument, it is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones.

It is thought to have been built some time between 3000 BC and 1600 BC. According to the latest research, the stone monument dates back to 2300 BC. Some of the stones weigh up to 45,000 kilos. How these megaliths were transported and erected remains a mystery. They are believed to have been carried there from Wales over a distance of some 250 kilometres.

Significance

There is no scientific agreement as to the monument’s origin and function. Some see is as a temple, others as an astronomical calendar. Others say the site was used to worship the sun. In view of the 350 burial mounds in its vicinity, the theory considered most convincing regards it as a burial site. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986. Until 1918 it was owned by a local resident, who donated it to the state.

Attraction

One of Britain’s most popular sites, Stonehenge attracts some 750,000 visitors every year. Visitors are only allowed to wander among the stones and touch them during the summer solstice.

Incidents

Last year’s summer solstice was marred by a number of minor incidents. Around 25 people were arrested for creating a disturbance or using drugs. The organizers stress that drugs are illegal but allow visitors to bring some beer or wine. Following confrontations between police and hooligans, the site was closed between 1986 and 2000. Last year’s summer solstice was attended by a record 36,000 visitors.

“Dutch Stonehenge”

In 1990, Dutch archaeologists discovered a similar structure in the east of the Netherlands. Though its two nearly identical circles are marked by wooden poles rather than stones, its geometric principles are the same as those used at Stonehenge. It’s thought the poles served as a sowing and harvesting calendar or to observe the solstices, which were accompanied by various rituals and festivities.

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Bali raids nab 28 'beach gigolos'

ABC News, Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:42am AEST

Police on the Indonesian resort island of Bali have detained 28 people in a crackdown on "beach gigolos", who scout for foreign female tourists, officials said.

The raids began on Monday after the release of a trailer for a documentary on Bali's 'Kuta cowboys', the muscular and tanned Kuta beach surfers who develop short-term romantic relationships with foreign women in return for gifts.

Cowboys In Paradise follows the trials and tribulations of several beach boys, their families and their female patrons.

The documentary's Singapore-based director, Amit Virmani, says he finds the arrests deplorable.

"A witch hunt for men with tanned and muscular bodies on the beach is the last thing anybody wants," he said.

"The film is about one small aspect of life in a holiday destination. It does not suggest that the cowboys are all that Bali has to offer."

Gede Wijaya, a spokesman for the council area which includes Kuta beach, says that 28 people had been detained for not having proper identification or "for disturbing the peace or security of our beaches".

Mr Wijaya says the raids are part of routine checks and not linked to the documentary, but local media has reported that security officials were targetting tanned and muscular men.

"As has been reported, gigolos have indeed been rounded up," said Putu Suardika, a spokesman for the governor of Bali.

Virmani says he believes the beach gigolo phenomena was not unique to Bali, which is also known for its Hindu temples, volcanos, and terraced rice fields.

"Moreover, the cowboys do not pose a threat to tourists. What happens between consenting adults is their own business," he said.

"I am genuinely worried for the safety of the people in the film and the boys on the beach."

- Reuters