‘Come and visit’: Indigenous elders meet the King – and say he’s welcome back at Uluru

London: King Charles has met Indigenous leaders to mark the 40th anniversary of the day the Australian government handed Uluru back to its traditional owners.

The Anangu leaders, who say they would love to host him on a return visit to the iconic national park, spoke with the King in London at an event that included an Indigenous song about the sacred nature of the world heritage landmark.

One of the elders, Sammy Wilson, escorted Prince William and Princess Catherine around Uluru on a sunset walk a decade ago – and said he would also happily welcome them back if and when they chose to make another visit to Australia.

The King met nine Anangu leaders at Australia House in London in a sign of his support for their culture and his interest in their ownership of the landmark, which was formalised in October 1985 after then-prime minister Bob Hawke cleared obstacles to the handover.

Alison Carroll, an Anangu artist and elder who spoke with the King, said the land belonged to the Indigenous people after years of being considered the property of the Crown.

“In the past, when I was young, the Queen and the King previously did have the ownership of Australia,” she said.

“But now we’re in the process of saying, you know, some of the land has to come back to Anangu people.

“It needs to be given back, in a process of, you know, a sense of ownership, it’s where we belong, and the Anangu people have got to be in control of it.”

Carroll, a respected painter and ceramic artist who has visited the UK in the past, spoke in Pitjantjatjara; her answers to questions were translated by Harry Wilson, a fellow Anangu leader.

Sammy Wilson said he would like to see the King return to Uluru.

“Yep, we would like him to come and visit it,” he said. Asked if he would like to host William and Catherine at Uluru once more, he said he felt happy at that prospect.

While there is regular speculation about a visit to Australia by William and Catherine, there is no sign of a plan under way for such a major undertaking.

The King visited Uluru as Prince of Wales in 1983 with his wife, Princess Diana, during an Australian visit that drew thousands of people and made daily headlines. The pair walked up the rock, something visitors no longer do out of respect for the traditional owners.

The event in London placed the focus on the Anangu elders. The King did not make a speech to the gathering and instead listened to the visitors talk of the handback and sing about Uluru.

“The place has always been ours,” said Sammy Wilson. “The land is sacred. That’s the song we were singing.”

In a video address to welcome the King to the event, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would be at Uluru next week to mark the anniversary of the handback.

There was also an exchange of gifts: the Anangu gave the King an artwork called Ulurunya by Eunice Woods, while the King gave the visitors to London a piece of slipware pottery from Fitch and McAndrew, a pottery studio in Scotland.

The gathering came one year after the King emphasised Indigenous culture in an address to Parliament House in Canberra during a visit to Australia with Queen Camilla, when he made the environment a major theme in his remarks.

“It is in all our interests to be good stewards of the world, and good ancestors to those who come after us because we are all connected – both as a global community, and with all that sustains life,” he said at the time in Canberra.

“That is the timeless wisdom of Indigenous people throughout the world, from which each of us can benefit.”

His visit to Canberra made headlines when Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe strode towards the King after his speech and was blocked by security guards while she shouted about Indigenous sovereignty.

“You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” she called out. “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back.”

Talking to Indigenous leaders has been a regular part of the King’s meetings over the years – including one on Wednesday when he was reunited with Brazilian indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo people.

The pair first met in the 1980s, when Metuktire fought against land clearing in the Amazon rainforest. Their meeting in London this week came ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Brazil next month, a key issue for the King given his long-standing support for action to reduce carbon emissions.

The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park draws more than 250,000 visitors a year and is on the World Heritage List as one of the most important natural and cultural landmarks.

Federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act in 1976, allowing people to claim land where traditional ownership could be proven. The NT government resisted claims over Uluru, but the stalemate ended in 1983 when Hawke and his ministers decided to amend the act and transfer Uluru to the Anangu.

The gathering at the heart of the former British Empire was held on Thursday morning, UK time, and did not emphasise colonial history.

The first non-Indigenous person to visit Uluru is believed to have been William Gosse, an explorer who was born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1842 and led an expedition to central Australia in 1873. He named the site Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, who was premier of South Australia at the time.

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