Acknowledgment Of 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 or Torres Strait Islander clan or language group who are recognised as the original human inhabitants of the area. Welcomes are performed by the recognised traditional owner of the land in question. Welcomes to Country are sometimes accompanied by traditional smoking ceremonies, music or dance. Where a recognised owner is not available to perform the welcome, or the recognised traditional owners are not known, an Acknowledgement of Country may be offered instead.

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. 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. When other Aboriginal people travelled onto another tribe's land, a ceremony was performed to determine whether the travellers were peaceful and then to show that the travellers were welcome. A smoking ceremony may have been used to transfer the scent of the home tribe onto the visitors in order to indicate to others the travellers had been welcomed and to avoid animals fleeing at a strange scent.

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. "Country includes all living things ... It embraces the seasons, stories and creation spirits." 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. 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. Indigenous groups have also had some of their legal rights that arise under their traditional laws and customs recognised in the form of native title, since the Mabo judgment and the passage of the ''Native Title Act 1993''.

Evolution of the two greetings

Welcomes to Country are a form of Aboriginal ceremony used to welcome other peoples from other areas 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.

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. Several hundred travelled to the festival, supported by grants by the Whitlam government for Indigenous participation. 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.

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. Walley recalled that Māori performers were uncomfortable performing their cultural act without having been acknowledged or welcomed by the people of the land.

Arts administrator Rhoda Roberts coined the term ''Welcome to Country'' in the 1980s and helped develop both welcomes and acknowledgements to country by beginning each show she was involved with a welcome.

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". 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.

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. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence. (Show
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.)

Since 2008, when it was made on the day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples, 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 and Ngunnawal country, a Ngambri/Ngunnawal elder officiates.

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.

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. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence. (Show
here
.) 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 to become core Australian customs. They may be used to inform and educate as well as being entertaining at the same time.

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 or custodian to welcome visitors to their traditional country. The format varies; it may include a welcome speech, a traditional dance, and/or smoking ceremony.

Sydney's fireworks show has incorporated a Welcome to Country since the 2015–16 event to acknowledge the territory of Port Jackson as territory of the Cadigal, Gamaragal, and Wangal bands of the Eora people. This ceremony takes the form of a display that contains imagery, music, and pryotechnic effects inspired by Aboriginal culture. Since New Year's Eve 2022, the concept has been expanded to encompass the entirety of the 9 p.m. "Family Fireworks" show, whose soundtrack is curated by an Aboriginal artist or musicians.

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, 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.

The Victorian Government's wording for recognised traditional owners: Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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here
.)

And for unknown traditional owners:

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

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.

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.

Criticism

The Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country have become core Australian customs. However, they 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 and politicians Tony Abbott (as Opposition Leader, 2012); Peter Dutton (as Opposition Leader, 2023); Jacinta Price; and Pauline Hanson. Since the defeat of the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum, conservative politicians and commentators have used Welcome to Country as a focal point to oppose or scale down Indigenous Reconciliation, as a part of ongoing "culture wars", arguing the use is "divisive" and a "waste of taxpayers money".

In 2023, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia ruled that acknowledgements of country were inappropriate at church services because 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. However other churches, such as the Uniting Church, practise an Acknowledgement to Country, "seek ngto be a healing community, characterised by the love of Christ". Many other churches also practise the custom.

On 19 February 2025, while speaking at a commemoration of the 1942 Bombing of Darwin, Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Lia Finocchiaro did not acknowledge traditional owners. She later called acknowledgements of Aboriginal country "divisive".

In popular culture

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 other things brought by foreign settlers, like poison and grog (alcohol), and smallpox (whose origins in Australia remain a topic of debate). The song urges reconciliation.

References

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Indigenous Australian politics
Indigenous Australian culture
Ceremonies in Australia