On the western face of the gorge are two long, vertical fissures, which are believed to have been cuts made on the leg of the Liru leader. Despite his wounds, he continued to fight and succeeded in slashing the leg of his opponent so badly that the young Kuniya man was in danger of bleeding to death.

Delirious from pain and loss of blood, he made a track that is now the watercourse that flows into the gorge. Here the Kuniya man died, and the places where he rested as he bled to death are now three pools high up on the rock face. Above Mutitjulu is Uluru rock hole. This is the home of Kuniya who releases the water into Mutitjulu. If it stops flowing during a drought, the snake can be dislodged by calling “Kuka! Kuka! Kuka!” (Meat! Meat! Meat!).

On the eastern side of Uluru, at ground level, are two cylindrical boulders. One is believed to be the transformed body of Kuniya Ungata, and the other the woman Kuniya Ingridi. If the Anangu rub one of the stones in the proper season, while chanting the correct song, they believe the life essence of the pythons will leave the stones and impregnate female pythons, thereby increasing the food supply.

The Blue-Tongued Lizard men. At Wangka Arrkal, far to the south of Uluru on the South Australian border, two Bellbird brothers were stalking an emu. The large bird got spooked and ran northward toward Uluru, where it was killed by two Blue-Tongued Lizard men, called Mita and Lunkata.

Sharing an idyllic afternoon, and perhaps some legendary tales, in the shadow of Uluru.

When the Bellbird brothers arrived, the Lizards handed them a skinny portion of their quarry, claiming there was nothing left. In revenge, the hunters set fire to the Lizards’ shelter. The two men attempted to escape by climbing the rock face, but they fell back and were burned to death. Lichen on the rock face is the smoke from the fire, and the Blue-Tongued Lizard men survive as two half-buried boulders.

Legends and life lessons

These Tjukurpa stories are not regarded as dry history. Often, there is a moral lesson to be taught, and during initiation ceremonies young Anangu are introduced to the deeper meanings of the ancestral stories. In the Mita and Lunkata story, the antisocial behavior of the Blue-Tongued Lizard men illustrates what people think of those who refuse to divide meat with those entitled to share it, although the consequences were more dramatic than they might be in everyday life.