Impressions of Kakadu: Rock formations

One of the largest parks in the Territory, and the most famous, is Kakadu National Park. Not only are the natural surroundings — the endless swampland, forests and rock formations — worth seeing; the park offers visitors the opportunity to develop an acquaintance with Aboriginal culture.

The park itself, and much of the land in the Northern Territory, was recently given back to Aboriginal peoples. Local clans now operate the park and oversee the operation of visitors' centres within it, and all the signs make a point of reminding visitors of that fact. "This is our land. Please respect it," they begin. "Please use the correct names," some add, giving instructions as to how to pronounce them. One sign went to great lengths to explain that white settlers not only had misheard the name of one important rock formation, but had also mistaken it for another rock formation nearby.

Many of the rock formations in the Northern Territory are important to local peoples because, in legend, they mark the spots where individual ancestors rested as they moved through the often flooded landscape.

"What happened to the ancestors?" I ask. "Some of them are still around," our guide, Craig, explains. "The most feared is one called Namarrgon, or Lightning Man, who creates the severe lightning storms we have here. He lives in a cliff over there called Lightning Dreaming." You can see this cliff in the distance or, as we did, from the window of a small airplane. "The local people are terrified of the area," Craig adds. "They won't let anyone near it."

The sandstone often has overhangs that provided shelter to traditional peoples from the strong heat and heavy rains. It is here that cave paintings are typically found. One of them shows Lightning Man. But to our surprise, the sign in front of it doesn't explain very much. Nor do any of the signs in the park. Aboriginal peoples believe that their ancestors created all the objects in the world, and are still creating new ones. They fear that if knowledge of their creation stories and their rituals escape into the outside world, their world will fall into chaos.