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Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country are protocols sometimes used in Australia at the opening of meetings, launches, special events and official functions. The practice shows respect for the traditional custodians of a particular region or area.
Contents
- Welcome to Country in Parliament
- Fee for service for Welcome to Country
- Criticism
- Acknowledgment of Country
- Similar ceremonies outside of Australia
- References
A Welcome to Country is where an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander custodian or elder from the local region welcomes people to their land. This may be done through speech, song, dance or ceremony. Some report that the Welcome to Country has been a part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocol for thousands of years. Others, including Ernie Dingo, say the Welcome to Country is a more recent convention. Ernie Dingo claims his Welcome to Country in 1976 was the first modern-day Welcome to Country. Whatever the origin of the tradition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols or customs in relation to Welcome to Country are diverse and will vary from region to region.
The Acknowledgement of Country is usually a statement or a speech made by an Aboriginal or a non-Aboriginal to show respect to the traditional custodians of the land. The New South Wales Government has published a document with typical examples of the Acknowledgement of Country; one such example states: "I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on Aboriginal land and recognise the strength, resilience and capacity of Aboriginal people in this land."
A Welcome to Country does not preclude an Acknowledgement of Country. Following a Welcome to Country by a local indigenous representative, additional speakers may provide an Acknowledgement of Country.
Welcome to Country in Parliament
In Federal Parliament, both houses start each day with the Lord's Prayer and the Welcome to Country.
The first Welcome to Country at an opening of Parliament was led by Matilda House in February 2008.
Vowing that Welcome to Country would be a permanent feature of future parliamentary openings, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told the nation:
It's taken 41 parliaments to get here. We can be a bit slow sometimes, but we got here. When it comes to Parliaments of the future, this will become part and parcel of the fabric of our celebration of Australia in all of its unity and all of its diversity.
In November 2010, Victorian Liberal Senator Julian McGauran called for the Indigenous Welcome to Country statement to be dropped from the opening of Parliament each day, saying the Welcome to Country is not a prayer and should not be given equivalent status. This was just a few months after Australia's first indigenous member of the House of Representatives, Ken Wyatt was honoured in a special Welcome to Country ceremony in the forecourt to Parliament House.
Fee for service for Welcome to Country
Most Traditional Owner groups performing Welcome to Country will require payment of at least a nominal fee in return for their services. A NSW Government guideline states "In providing cultural services such as Welcome to Country, artistic performances and ceremonies Aboriginal people are using their intellectual property. As such providers of these services should be appropriately remunerated."
The Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council charges between $385 and $450 for a Welcome to Country ceremony, with a 20 per cent surcharge for night and weekend bookings.
Criticism
In 2012, Northern Territory MP and traditional Warlpiri woman Bess Price told a reporter that Welcome to Country ceremonies were not meaningful to traditional people, saying "We don't do that in communities. It's just a recent thing. It's just people who are trying to grapple at something they believe should be traditional."
In 2010, Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott said he thought that, in many contexts, the Welcome to Country seems like out-of-place tokenism. In 2012, Rhonda Roberts, a prominent indigenous Australian and head of Sydney Opera House indigenous programming, echoed Tony Abbott's criticisms.
Acknowledgment of Country
An Acknowledgment of Country by contrast is a way of showing awareness of and respect for the traditional owners of the land on which a meeting or event my be being held.
There is no formal wording but usually follows something like "I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on the traditional lands of the (appropriate group) people, and pay my respect to elders both past and present." Whatever the wording it usually makes reference to the traditional custodians and the elders past and present of those traditional custodians.
Unlike the more formal Welcome to Country, the Acknowledgment of Country need not be (and usually is not) performed by an elder of the local aboriginal tribe, as it is more a respect paid to the traditional custodians. An Acknowledgment of Country is often used informally at the beginning of meetings including Australian Parliament, education events or legal and community meetings.
Similar ceremonies outside of Australia
Although not called as such, similar salutations may be exchanged in other ex-settler colonial countries with indigenous minorities. An example would be during the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, when the Squamish Nation, the Musqueam Indian Band, the Lil'wat First Nation, and the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation gave Olympic visitors an official welcome to their traditional territories (Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada). In a few cases the Australian usage has been adopted whole cloth, as when engineer Gordon Howell prefaced his remarks to a 2010 conference on housing in Inuvik with an acknowledgement borrowed from Australian politician Mike Rann.
On 26 January 2013, Kathleen Wynne's speech to the Ontario Liberal Party's leadership convention began with an acknowledgement of country for the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.