The monolith is an integral part of the landscape crisscrossed by the characters of the Tjukurpa stories. Having said that, Uluru was initially formed by two characters known simply as the Two Boys.

How Uluru was formed. The Two Boys were hunting and traveling together from what is now South Australia. They became intrigued by the sound of the Mala Wallby people holding an inma (a religious ceremony) around a rock hole that is now part of Kantju Gorge on the northwest face of Uluru. The Two Boys traveled toward the ceremony to see what was happening. They were uninitiated and had no knowledge of men’s ceremonies. They were curious.

The Mala, meanwhile, were separating into their men’s and women’s camps preparing for the inma the next morning. The Mala were in a dilemma. Shortly after they arrived and began their inma, another people arrived from the west with an invitation to join their inma. The Mala had to refuse because they had previously planted a pole in the ground, and from that moment everything had become a part of their ceremony.

Now, prior to the inma, even everyday jobs, like hunting, gathering, and preparing food, collecting water, talking to people, or just waiting, had to be done in a proper way. This has been the law for men, women, and children ever since. But for the Mala to refuse would anger the people from the west.

The Mala continued their preparations. When they were not dancing, the women gathered food for the whole group. The women’s camp was at Taputji, the small isolated dome on the northeast side of Uluru. One of their digging sticks can still be seen here, where it was transformed into stone. The Mala were soon interrupted by an savage black doglike creature called Kurpany. It was an evil spirit created by the insulted westerners.

Kurpany attacked and killed many Mala men, women, and children. In terror, the remaining Mala fled to the south with Kurpany chasing them. When people trek along the base of the north face of Uluru, the Anangu believe, they are surrounded by the Mala Tjukurpa.

During the Mala preparations the Two Boys began playing at the waterhole, mixing water with the surrounding earth. They piled up the mud, higher and higher, until it was the size that Uluru is today.