Welcome to Country

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Wiradjuri elder Isobel Reid giving the Welcome to Country Wiradjuri Elder, Aunty Isobel Reid, giving the Welcome to Country at the Centenary of the Kangaroo March launch.jpg
Wiradjuri elder Isobel Reid giving the Welcome to Country

A Welcome to Country is a ritual or formal ceremony performed as a land acknowledgement at many events held in Australia. It is an event intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to the descendants of a particular Aboriginal clan or language group who were recognised as the original human inhabitants of the area. For the Welcome to be recognised as official, it must be performed by a recognised elder of the group. Welcomes to Country are sometimes accompanied by traditional smoking ceremonies, music or dance. Where an elder is not available to perform the welcome, or there is not a recognised traditional owner, an Acknowledgement of Country may be offered instead.

Contents

The term "country" has a particular meaning and significance to many Aboriginal peoples, encompassing an interdependent relationship between an individual or a people and their ancestral or traditional lands and seas. The connection to land involves culture, spirituality, language, law/lore, kin relationships and identity. The Welcome to Country has been a long tradition among Aboriginal Australian groups to welcome peoples from other areas.[ citation needed ] Today it serves also as a symbol which signifies the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' presence in Australia before colonisation and an end to their past exclusion from Australian history and society, aiding to reconciliation with Australia's First Nations.

Since 2008, a Welcome to Country has been incorporated into the ceremonial opening of the Parliament of Australia, occurring after each federal election.

History

Aboriginal history and relationship with land

In Aboriginal culture prior to European settlement, each clan's survival was dependent upon its understanding of food, water and other resources within its own country – a discrete area of land to which it had more or less exclusive claim. [1] Traditional ownership has been legally recognised under native title in Australia since the Native Title Act 1993 .

Connection to country (often spelt with a capital C) means more than just the land or waters in Aboriginal culture. There is no equivalent in the English language to describe that which permeates all aspects of existence: culture, spirituality, language, law, family and identity. Aboriginal people did not own land as property in the past, but their relationship to an area of land provides a deep sense of "identity, purpose and belonging" and is a relationship of reciprocity and respect. [2] "Country includes all living things ... It embraces the seasons, stories and creation spirits." [3] The history of a people with an area ("country") can go back for thousands of years and the relationship with the land is nurtured and sustained by cultural knowledge and by the environment. Disconnection from the land can impact health and wellbeing. [4] This connection is also reflected in such phrases as "caring for country" or "living on country" and related to the importance of land rights and native title. [5]

Evolution of the two greetings

Welcomes to Country are a form of Aboriginal ceremony used to welcome other peoples from other areas [6] and as a cultural exchange. It is seen as a way of making newcomers feel comfortable and connected, and may be the basis for forging important future relationships. [7]

The 1973 Aquarius Festival held in Nimbin, New South Wales, by the Australian Union of Students (AUS) has been documented as Australia's first publicly observed Welcome to Country, although it was not called this at the time. Organisers of the alternative lifestyle festival, considered Australia's "Woodstock", were challenged by Indigenous activist Gary Foley to seek permission from traditional owners to hold the festival on their land. San people from the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa, including artist Bauxhau Stone, were sent out by AUS representatives to invite Aboriginal people to the festival and funding from the Whitlam government paid for many busloads to travel to the festival. An estimated 200 to 800 Indigenous Australians attended the two-week festival, marking a significant kindling of relationships with Australia's counterculture. A ceremony was conducted by Uncle Lyle Roberts and song man Uncle Dickee Donnelly, the last known initiated men of the area. [8]

The second recorded Welcome to Country occurred in 1976, when entertainers Ernie Dingo and Richard Walley developed a ceremony to welcome a group of Māori artists who were participating in the Perth International Arts Festival. The welcome, extended on behalf of the Noongar people, was intended to mirror the visitors' own traditions, while incorporating elements of Aboriginal culture. [9] Walley recalled that [10] Māori performers were uncomfortable performing their cultural act without having been acknowledged or welcomed by the people of the land.

I asked the good spirits of my ancestors and the good spirits of the ancestors of the land to watch over us and keep our guests safe while they’re in our Country. And then I talked to the spirits of their ancestors, saying that we’re looking after them here and we will send them back to their Country.

Arts administrator Rhoda Roberts says that the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust was instrumental in developing both welcomes and acknowledgements to country during the 1980s. [11]

Acknowledgements of country are a more recent development, associated with the Keating government of the 1990s, the reconciliation movement and the creation of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) with Yawuru man Pat Dodson as chair. After the Mabo case , in which the historical fiction of terra nullius was overturned and native title was recognised in Australia. According to Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man Tiriki Onus, head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the University of Melbourne, it was after Mabo that Acknowledgement of Country grew among "grassroots communities concerned with issues of reconciliation".[ citation needed ] Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney, a member of CAR in those days, has said that there was no formal strategy to bring the Acknowledgement of Country into Australian life, but it just grew organically and became accepted as part of many types of gatherings. It is seen as a good way to engage people with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture and the wider Australian community sees the relationship feels that its important to have a good relationship with Australia's Indigenous peoples. [12]

Welcomes and acknowledgements have since been incorporated into openings of meetings and other events across Australia, by all levels of government, universities, community groups, arts other organisations. [6] [13] [14] [15]

Since 2008, when it was made on the day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples, [7] a Welcome to Country has been incorporated into the ceremonial opening of the Parliament of Australia, an event which occurs after each federal election. The welcome includes a speech as well as traditional music and dance. Given that parliament sits in Canberra, traditionally part of Ngambri country, a Ngambri elder officiates. [16]

Significance

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were largely excluded from Australian history books and from the democratic process in Australia for the first two centuries of white settlement, since the colonisation of Australia from 1788. Including recognition of Indigenous peoples in events, meetings and national symbols is seen as one part of repairing the damage caused by exclusion from settler society. Incorporating Welcome or Acknowledgement protocols into official meetings and events "recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of land" and shows respect for traditional owners. [17]

Description

Both Welcomes and Acknowledgements recognise the continuing connection of Aboriginal traditional owners to their country, and offer appropriate respect as part of the process of reconciliation and healing. [18] As they have become more commonplace and people have become used to hearing them, efforts are being made by many to keep the words alive and make them meaningful. They may be used to inform and educate as well as being entertaining at the same time. [7]

Welcome to Country

The Victorian Government advised that Welcomes are advised for major public events, forums and functions in locations where traditional owners have been formally recognised. A Welcome to Country can only be undertaken by an elder, formally recognised traditional owner [13] or custodian to welcome visitors to their traditional country. [6] The format varies; it may include a welcome speech, a traditional dance, and/or smoking ceremony.

Acknowledgement of Country

If a local elder is not available, or if the traditional owners have not been formally recognised for the area, an Acknowledgement of Country, [6] also known as Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners, performed by the host of the event, is appropriate. If there is no formal recognition of traditional ownership, it is advised to limit recognition to an Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners generally, without making a reference to the name of any specific traditional owners. [13]

The Victorian Government's wording for recognised traditional owners: [19]

Our meeting/conference/workshop is being held on the lands of the [Traditional Owner's name] people and I wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners. I would also like to pay my respects to their Elders, past and present, and Aboriginal Elders of other communities who may be here today.

And for unknown traditional owners: [19]

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land [or country] on which we are meeting. I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be here today.

The City of Adelaide's wording is (specifically tailored for the local Kaurna people): [14]

City of Adelaide acknowledges that we are meeting on the traditional country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and pays respect to Elders past and present.

We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.

And we also extend that respect to other Aboriginal Language Groups and other First Nations.

The words "always was, always will be Aboriginal land" are sometimes included in Acknowledgement of Country, as acknowledgement that the land of Australia was never ceded. [20] [21]

Other countries

Similar acknowledgements, e.g. land acknowledgements, have become common at public events in Canada and have begun to be adopted by Native American groups in the United States. [22] [23] [24]

Observance and criticism

The Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country have become core Australian customs. [25] Some jurisdictions, such as New South Wales, make a welcome (or, failing that, acknowledgement) mandatory[ dubious ] at all government-run events. [26] The Victorian Government supports Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country. [27]

Welcomes to Country have attracted criticism from conservative politicians, historians and commentators, some of whom suggest that such ceremonies are a form of tokenism and do not reflect traditional Aboriginal culture. Critics have included historian Keith Windschuttle [28] and politicians Tony Abbott (as Opposition Leader, 2012); [29] Jacinta Price; [30] [31] and Pauline Hanson. [32]

In 2023, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia ruled that acknowledgements of country were inappropriate at church services, on the basis that, among other things, their wording "almost invariably carries overtones of an Indigenous spirituality inconsistent with Christian belief" and that "final ownership of land" is vested in the Creator rather than people. [33]

The Australian band Midnight Oil released a single in August 2020 entitled "Gadigal Land", whose lyrics include a play on the traditional Welcome to Country as a critical review of Aboriginal history. Starting with the line "Welcome to Gadigal land", it goes on to mention smallpox, poison and grog (alcohol), which were all brought to Australia by the colonisers. The song urges reconciliation. [34]

Related Research Articles

<i>Mabo v Queensland (No 2)</i> 1992 High Court of Australia decision which recognised native title

Mabo v Queensland is a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that recognised the existence of Native Title in Australia. It was brought by Eddie Mabo against the State of Queensland and decided on 3 June 1992. The case is notable for being the first in Australia to recognise pre-colonial land interests of Indigenous Australians within the common law of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Indigenous sovereignty</span> Concept and political movement regarding land ownership by Indigenous peoples in Australia

Australian Indigenous sovereignty, also recently termed Blak sovereignty, encompasses the various rights claimed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within Australia. Such rights are said to derive from Indigenous peoples' occupation and ownership of Australia prior to colonisation and through their continuing spiritual connection to land. Indigenous sovereignty is not recognised in the Australian Constitution or under Australian law.

The Kaurna people are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurna culture and language were almost completely destroyed within a few decades of the British colonisation of South Australia in 1836. However, extensive documentation by early missionaries and other researchers has enabled a modern revival of both language and culture. The phrase Kaurna meyunna means "Kaurna people".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous music of Australia</span> Music of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders

Indigenous music of Australia comprises the music of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, intersecting with their cultural and ceremonial observances, through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day. The traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical instrumentation that are unique to particular regions or Aboriginal Australian groups; and some elements of musical tradition are common or widespread through much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The music of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea. Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.

Native title refers to rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rights were first recognised as a part of Australian common law with the decision of Mabo v Queensland in 1992. The doctrine was subsequently implemented and modified via statute with the Native Title Act 1993.

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The Gadigal, also spelled as Cadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country, the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dharug language</span> Australian Aboriginal language of the Sydney area

The Dharug language, also spelt Darug, Dharuk, and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language, Gadigal language, is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in the region of Sydney, New South Wales, until it became extinct due to effects of colonisation. It is the traditional language of the Dharug people. The Dharug population has greatly diminished since the onset of colonisation. Eora language has sometimes been used to distinguish a coastal dialect from hinterland dialects, but there is no evidence that Aboriginal peoples ever used this term, which simply means "people". Some effort has been put into reviving a reconstructed form of the language.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reconciliation Place</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bidjigal</span> Aboriginal Australian people

The Bidjigal people are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are modern-day western, north-western, south-eastern, and southern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. The land includes the Bidjigal Reserve, Salt Pan Creek and the Georges River. They are part of the Dharug language group, and there is debate as to whether the clan is part of the Dharug or Eora people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking ceremony</span> Aboriginal Australian custom

Smoking ceremony is an ancient and contemporary custom among some Aboriginal Australians that involves smouldering native plants to produce smoke. This herbal smoke is believed to have both spiritual and physical cleansing properties, as well as the ability to ward off bad spirits. In traditional, spiritual culture, smoking ceremonies have been performed following either childbirth or initiation rites involving circumcision. In contemporary culture, elements of smoking ceremonies have been incorporated into Welcome to Country performances and other spiritual events held for the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngambri</span> Australian Aboriginal group of the Canberra region

The Ngambri, also known as Kamberri, are an Aboriginal clan or group who claim traditional ownership of the Australian Capital Territory area, but their connection to the land is contested. One reason for this is that Canberra, where Ngambri claims are made, lay close to the tribal boundaries that separated the Ngarigo from the Ngunnawal people. Other reasons are the dislocation of Aboriginal populations and intertribal marriage and interracial relationships following European settlement, leading to a high proportion of people identifying themselves as Indigenous Australians, but not knowing their traditional origins. As of April 2023 the ACT Government does not recognise Ngambri people as traditional owners of the ACT, listing only the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the land, but has promised a review of their Indigenous protocol following a Supreme Court challenge by Ngambri families in July 2022.

Matilda Williams House was born in 1945 on the Erambie Aboriginal Reserve at Cowra, New South Wales (NSW), and raised in her grandfather’s house at Hollywood Aboriginal Reserve in Yass, NSW. When she was 12, House spent a year in Parramatta Girls' Home. House was one of ten children.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a 2017 petition to the people of Australia, written and endorsed by the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders selected as delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Convention. The document calls for substantive constitutional change and structural reform through the creation of two new institutions; a constitutionally protected First Nations Voice and a Makarrata Commission, to oversee agreement-making and truth-telling between governments and First Nations. Such reforms should be implemented, it is argued, both in recognition of the continuing sovereignty of Indigenous peoples and to address structural "powerlessness" that has led to severe disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. These reforms can be summarised as Voice, Treaty and Truth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land acknowledgement</span> Formal statement spoken at the beginning of a public event

A land acknowledgement or territorial acknowledgement is a formal statement that acknowledges the original Indigenous Peoples of the land, spoken at the beginning of public events. The custom of land acknowledgement is a traditional practice that dates back centuries in many Indigenous cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gadigal Land</span> 2020 single by Midnight Oil featuring Dan Sultan, Joel Davison, Kaleena Briggs and Bunna Lawrie

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reconciliation in Australia</span> Movement to improve relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

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"Always was, always will be Aboriginal land", sometimes abbreviated to "Always was, always will be" or just "Always will be", is an iconic phrase and rallying cry of the Aboriginal land rights movement in Australia.

The Indigenous peoples of Australia, that is Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people, have strong and complex relationships with the concept of "Country". In this sense it does not refer to the nation of Australia, but rather different aspects of how the traditional lands of a particular First Nations group affects their culture, way of seeing the world, and interactions with other people.

References

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