The handing over of Ayers Rock to the Mutitjulu Community, was a political act ONLY, not an advance of interests of Aboriginal people. The most galling aspect is the persistent claim that the Rock has been returned to the traditional owners.
Peter B. English has set out to put the matter straight. He has debunked the myth of "traditional ownership" of Uluru and is right on target when he discloses that the former Aboriginal ownership of the Ayers Rock region has never been clearly established.
The loosely-knit Mutitjulu Community (which only came into being in 1981) is a creation of white Australians and not accepted as the "traditional owners of Ayers Rock" by the descendants of those people whose lands were invaded and usurped by the Pitjantjatjara in 1917.
The Ayers Rock fiasco heightened public awareness of the claims being made upon the national heritage of all Australians. But because the vast majority of Australians have virtually no knowledge of the history of he Aboriginal people, the Federal Government was able to effect the transfer of title to the Ayers Rock National Park, safe in the knowledge at very few people would doubt the claim that the Rock was being "returned to its traditional owners".
