Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park is a dual UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Australia’s most iconic natural landmark, Uluṟu. It is deeply sacred to the Aṉangu people, who are its traditional custodians and have lived there for more than 30,000 years.
For Aṉangu, there is no distinction between the physical and metaphysical, or the animate and inanimate. People, earth, plants, and animals are inextricably connected. This means that Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park could never be truly represented or understood (virtually or otherwise) without the voices of its people.
With our partners, Google Australia looked for ways to bring these cultural and spiritual dimensions to the Street View experience, and help preserve the Aṉangu ancient oral tradition. We worked closely with Aṉangu Traditional Owners of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, Parks Australia, and Northern Territory Government to capture the park in Street View, according to local laws and customs. We used the Story Spheres platform to add traditional stories and songs to our 360-degree Street View imagery.
The result is an interactive, audio-visual guided tour of the sacred Aṉangu ‘songlines’ — creation stories about the journeys, battles and adventures of their ancestral beings.
