Video Analysis: 'The Land Owns Us'

The YouTube clip known as ‘The land owns’ us is about a Yankunytjatjara elder and traditional owner of Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), named Bob Randall. This clip is about Bob’s history and life in Uluru (Ayer’s rock) amongst the Muntujulu Community. He talks about the Stolen Generations and his connection to his land. Bob talks about being taken away by the police to Alice Springs, and being a part of the Stolen Generation. This dispossession from ancestral lands caused trauma to many Aboriginal peoples and impact on their connection to their lands. Bob also talks about the fact that they take most things from their land and that it is a natural way of life as well as that if you’re alive, you will have connections with anything that is alive. Bob also said that the land owns them and the land is responsible for growing people up. He also talks about how the land is

To rejuvenate the land, Aboriginal peoples traditionally used this technique. People like Dr Charlie Massy want to use these traditional practices to manage the land and use these natural processes instead of fertilizers and chemicals, which further degrade the land. Alternatively, burning regenerates the soil. Charlie Massy thinks that they should be learning traditional land management techniques. People now want to learn and introduce those techniques. These techniques show fresh growth after the burning. Aboriginal peoples understood that the best time to do the burning was in the late afternoon or a cool morning in late autumn or early winter and this knowledge is now being passed to non-Indigenous people. Rod Mason said “that it is very important for non-indigenous people because they’re the new land owners now.” He also said that it was logical to learn how Aboriginal people used fire and bring it to land management in the modern