Aborigine Center Opens in Australia

The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Center, devoted to a culture that is more than 60,000 years old, has opened in the heart of Aboriginal Australia in the Northern Territory.

The new center (pictured, right) is less than a mile from Uluru--known to most tourists as Ayers Rock--and celebrates through paintings, crafts and music the Aborigines’ oral traditions, dream mythology, legends and identification with the natural environment. The sweeping curves of the building represent ancestral serpents, whose legends are sacred to the Anangu tribe.

The center is open daily and admission is free. Current displays include Anangu paintings and sculpture and a history exhibit that incorporates photo collages and oral histories. Two-hour guided tours are available for about $35.