The defiant Aboriginal elder whose controversial welcome-to-country speech sparked outrage across the country this week has mocked the “utter stupidity” of his critics.
Brendan Kerin went viral after performing the ceremony ahead of the AFL semi-final match between GWS Giants and Brisbane Lions at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday, September 14.
As part of his performance, he addressed the crowd that filled the venue and told them that such rituals were actually not for ‘white people’.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson called the comments divisive and said Kerin’s comments had left football fans “scratching their heads”.
“If the welcoming ceremonies are not to please white people, why are white people constantly subjected to them?” he asked on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
His thoughts were echoed by a number of high-profile commentators, including Kerin, A cultural educator with SydneyMetropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, which faces constant requests to explain its views.
He finally He broke his silence on the controversy in an interview with NITV on Friday and took the opportunity to accuse four of his main critics of being on the wrong side of history.
“With all the comments, I think we can sit back and just watch the absolute stupidity and ignorance of what people are saying,” he said.
Brendan Kerin, a cultural educator with the Sydney Metropolitan Aboriginal Local Land Council, has denounced the “absolute stupidity” of his critics.
Mr Kerin delivered a controversial welcome to country address at the AFL semi-finals on September 14, prompting One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson to respond in parliament.
“Seeing people like Andrew Bolt, Pauline Hanson, Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine speak confirms that I am on the right path.”
Reflecting on the backlash she received over her controversial comments, Kerin said there was only one thing she would change about her speech.
“If I had to do it again, I would make it a little longer, but I wouldn’t change a word,” he said.
Ms Hanson said Mr Kerin’s latest comments would only intensify the growing backlash against the controversial ceremony..
“After seeing this report and hearing the duplication of efforts, I believe even more Australians will join us in speaking out against the damaging division these ceremonies are spreading,” he said.
‘I am appalled that the genuine concerns of ordinary Australians are dismissed as “ignorant” and “stupid.”
“We shouldn’t be lectured about our own house.”
Ms Hanson has been a long-standing critic of the welcome-to-country ritual and has previously called for it to be cancelled at taxpayer-funded events, arguing that Australians do not need to be welcomed back to their own homeland.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on Tuesday in the Senate called Kerin’s claim that Welcome to Country was “not for white people” “divisive”.
Mr Kerin said that if he could give the speech again, he would have made it longer.
It was that particular criticism that Mr. Kerin addressed at his now infamous Welcome to Country ceremony last weekend.
“In Australia we have a lot of Aboriginal lands and we refer to them as ‘country’. So we always welcome the lands we have gathered on,” Kerin said.
‘Welcome to the country is not a ceremony that we have invented to satisfy white people.
‘It’s a ceremony we’ve been doing for over 250,000 years BC, and BC stands for Before Cooking.
‘Before colonization, anyone could get into a lot of trouble for walking on foreign land without being welcome.
“It is always an honor for me to perform this ceremony.”
Andrew Bolt described the speech as “the most hostile welcome” he had ever heard.
The speech was met with applause before Mr Kerin played a short piece on the didgeridoo and then Mimi Velevska sang Advance Australia Fair and the game began.
In addition to Ms. Hanson, each of the critics Mr. Kerin mentioned by name appeared in various media outlets to criticize his portrayal of the ceremony.
“This man welcomed the country to Saturday’s AFL semi-final, which just proved that this so-called ‘traditional ceremony’ has become an insult to our intelligence,” Bolt said. Its transmission which aired on Tuesday.
“It was the most hostile welcome I have ever heard.”
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price tells Sky News she’s over Welcome to Country
Warren Mundine says controversial ceremonies are starting to get “a bit overdone”
Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jacinta Nampijinpa Price he told Sky News which had already been overcome on Sunday.
“There’s a huge reinvention of culture going on and it’s becoming a kind of fantasy,” Price said.
“This has become ridiculous and we need to become Australian again.”
Mr. Kerin’s latest critic, whom he called out by name, was the indigenous affairs advocate Mr. Mundine, he told Melbourne’s 3AW The welcoming ceremonies in the country were beginning to lose “their shine.”
“I think this has gotten a little bit over the top… it’s just gotten crazy,” Mundine said.
“Too much has already been done and it is starting to lose its shine.”
Mr Mundine noted that he himself had made several welcome speeches to the country, but that he had addressed them to people who did not live in the country or at naturalisation ceremonies.