King Charles meets Indigenous leaders to mark 40th anniversary of handover
Sammy Wilson, another of the nine elders at the meeting, was in the community when Prince William and Princess Catherine visited Uluru in 2014 and accompanied them on a sunset walk in the national park.
Wilson said he wanted to welcome the King to Uluru.
“Yes, we want him to come and visit here,” he said.
While the King met privately with Anangu elders, he did not address the gathering and instead listened to the visitors talk about the return and sing a song about Uluru.
“This place was always ours,” Sammy Wilson said after meeting the King. “The land is sacred. That’s the song we sing.”
The meeting comes a year after the King highlighted Indigenous culture and made the environment a central theme in his speech to Parliament House in Canberra during his visit to Australia with Queen Camilla.
“It is in all of our interests to be good stewards of the earth and good ancestors of those who come after us, because we are all interconnected both as a global community and by all that supports life,” he said in Canberra at the time.
A scene from the Uluru handover ceremony on 28 October 1985.Credit: Rick Stevens
“This is the timeless wisdom of Indigenous peoples around the world that each of us can benefit from.”
His visit to Canberra made headlines when Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe walked towards the King after his speech and was blocked by security guards as she shouted about Indigenous sovereignty.
“You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” he shouted. “You committed genocide against our people. Give us back our lands.”
The royal couple appeared calm during the protest, and the King spoke quietly to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as Thorpe was led out of the Great Hall of Parliament House.
Talking to native leaders became a regular part of the King’s meetings over the years; Including Wednesday’s meeting where the Kayapo people reunited with Brazilian indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire.
King Charles reunited with indigenous Brazilian chef Raoni Metuktire during a reception in London.Credit: Getty Images
The two first met in the 1980s, when Metuktire was fighting against land clearing in the Amazon rainforest. This week’s meeting in London comes ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Brazil next month; This is an important issue for the King, given his long-standing support for action to reduce carbon emissions.
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park attracts more than 250,000 visitors annually and is on the World Heritage List as one of the most important natural and cultural landmarks.
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The federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act in 1976, allowing people to claim land where traditional title can be proven. The NT government resisted claims to Uluru, but the stalemate ended in 1983 when Hawke and his ministers decided to change the law and hand Uluru over to the Anangu.
The meeting in the heart of the former British empire was held on Thursday morning local time and did not emphasize colonial history.
The first non-Indigenous person to visit Uluru is believed to be explorer William Gosse, who was born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1842 and led an expedition to Central Australia in 1873. Gosse named the area Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, then prime minister of South Australia.
