Uluru--If I go I will climb

by JC

I've read quite a lot about whether and why to climb Urulu or not. There are a lot of reasons why conscientious people decide to climb it and why others not. Most of them--whatever is their decision--have their point.

I haven't seen anyone using my arguments to climb Uluru, so I've decided to share them:

Cultures and traditions in history change during the years, decades, centuries and people have to accept other cultures, learn from them and be enough openminded to accept other points of view. In this case, I think it applies both ways, not only tourists from aborigines but also the other way.

If aborigines understand that foreigners climb "their" mountain in a respectful way they shouldn't be upset by that. Tourists should be clean and leave no trace behind them. I am pretty sure aborigines can understand that the magical feeling being embraced by nature at the top of the mountain is a way of understanding nature and most important, respect it. If I spend my time researching about aborigines and why I shouldn't climb Urulu, and will even ask them when I am there (I might change my mind, who knows), I also expect them to hear my arguments and learn how some of us see things in a different way.

I am from a European country and lot of things are changing due to immigrants coming from Africa. People where I come from, at the beginning were not very happy with all these inmigrants bringing different traditions and behaviours, but little by little are starting to understand (especially the young generations whose some of their friends are children from those inmigrants) and accept that things can change and traditions can be mixed (like music or any other art), and don't need to be unchangeable. I am very happy for that.

Then, we are talking about a natural wonder that shouldn't belong to anyone in particular but to everyone in general. That's another reason why I think everyone should be allowed to enjoy the rock in their own and respectful way. I know the aborigines have been there for a long time and white people arrived to that land not that long ago, but still, this is a wonderful rock and shouldn't have an owner. Imagine that we couldn't climb other natural wonders because some tribes (let's say in Africa) don't like it.

I think we don't need more bans in this world but try to open more minds, always respectfully. The arguments against climbing it, even if they have their point, I found them a bit paternalists.

My two cents.