Battle for rock's image heats up

By ROSS BARNETT

The controversial rules that govern commercial filming and photography at Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, in Australia's arid heartland have been thrown into the national spotlight again.

An exhibition of travel and landscape photographs by well-known German film director Wim Wenders at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney contained a panoramic image that was in breach of the guidelines, which make it an offence for unauthorised photographers to take pictures for commercial gain in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, where Ayers Rock is located.

Wenders took this suddenly contentious image, titled Valley of the Winds, while visiting Australia in 1988.

To avoid a fine which could have been as high as A$55,000 ($61,000), the gallery quickly took the offending picture off its walls and issued a press statement stating they had done so in respect for the Anangu Aboriginal people, the traditional owners of the site.

Wenders, who was filming in Montana, was eventually made aware of the ruckus and faxed a letter of apology to the Anangu people, regretting the offence he may have caused to the custodians of the site.

At the same time, Peter Cochrane, the director of national parks, announced he was satisfied with the museum's apology , adding, "This was the approach we seek in every case", which was to "make people aware that there may be material that is sensitive to traditional owners and ask that they take some appropriate action".

But while Cochrane was lauding this mutually acceptable outcome, his political master, Federal Environment Minister, Dr David Kemp, was taking a softer line.

In a statement to the Australian newspaper, Kemp said his department would not pursue a legal test case against the authors of the children's book, Bromley Climbs Uluru, which contains several pictures in breach of the park's guidelines.

Kemp said in his opinion, court action against the Bromley authors was "not appropriate given the importance of principles of freedom of expression in our society".

To some observers, the minister's statement seemed to validate the concern expressed by Australian landscape photographers, travel writers and tour operators over the years that the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Parks photographic regulations are a form of censorship.

The Bromley book, which was first published in 1993, has pictures of a teddy bear climbing the rock. The authors, Alan and Patricia Campbell, insist the pictures should never have been subject to government regulation because they were taken years before the restrictions were put in place.

Now, with the threat of legal action lifted, they will go ahead with another reprint in November to capitalise on the publicity.

On Sydney talkback radio the Campbells have been hailed by certain shock-jock announcers as heroes of free speech in what some see as a culture war, and new orders for the Bromley book have been streaming in.

The day after the Campbells' announcement, Peter Cochrane from Parks Australia, issued a media release defending the Uluru photo rules while at the same admitting the Government would not hand out large fines, except in the most extreme cases.

The Anangu are deeply distressed by the minister's statement and the attitude of the Bromley authors.

According to Graeme Calma, an Aboriginal spokesman who is chair of the indigenous community that lives in the shadow of the rock, Anangu are disappointed and confused.

"We all thought that the minister would protect and help to look after Anangu's best interests," he said.

Calma maintains that Anangu saw the Bromley book as an extreme case which should have been prosecuted by the Australian Government.

"It certainly puts a question mark over the joint management of the park when the minister and the top official [Peter Cochrane] aren't listening to us in terms of looking after the park and all the sites throughout the park," he said.

But while Anangu had been disappointed in this area, they had been heartened to some extent by the contrition shown by Wenders.

Calma said while the Valley of the Winds photograph was probably even more offensive to him than the pictures in the Bromley book, he had been pleased by the film director's expression of regret, which he said was in contrast to that of the Campbells.

"Australians just don't understand the position of Anangu," he said, and "they don't understand that it [Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park] is Aboriginal land.

"It seems that in this case the people from overseas have a lot more understanding of the issues we face. And they know that it is important for us to get it right.

* The Wim Wenders exhibition Pictures From The Surface Of The Earth will be on display at the City Gallery in Wellington from October until February next year.