On 26 October 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines, with one of the conditions being that the Anangu would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed.

I first saw Uluru when flying over in the Ministerial plane with Charles Perkins and Clive Holding. I was shattered. I felt that I had been exposed to the heart of our land.

This photograph was made when I visited the site with Hinton Lowe of the Aboriginal Petrol Sniffing Team, later in 1987. We had been at Kintore and traveled over the sand dunes via Docker River to get to the Gunbarrel highway and safety.

I was fascinated by the smallness of the figures on the surface of the monolith, the markings on the surface of the rock as well as the poetic curve of its ridge.