Travel Column: Australia Through Aboriginal Eyes

Travel Column: Australia Through Aboriginal Eyes

"Good morning," says Sammy Wilson. "I'm on my land, so I'm going to be speaking my language." Dark, with a gentle, middle-aged face, Wilson continues in the Yankunytjatjara tongue, his lighter-toned interpreter always at his side. Anangu is the only tour company at Uluru (Ayers Rock) that has Aborigine guides.

To most people, Uluru is one of the world's great stone monoliths, 1,142 feet (348 meters) high, 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) around, the icon of Australia's Red Center. But for the Anangu ("we people"), this rock is the heart of a region where they have lived for over 20,000 years and to which they finally regained title in 1985.