NRL powerhouse Melbourne Storm have decided to scale back the club’s ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremonies as debate continues over the controversial tradition.
The Storm have privately confirmed that they will be abandoning the usual homecoming ceremonies throughout the season. news corporation information.
The club said: “We are very keen that our actions (rather than words) reflect what we represent as a club in the community.”
The ceremony has been abandoned since the end of the 2024 NRL season, but the club has indicated it is now an official call-up.
However, the ceremony will continue during the NRL’s Indigenous round.
Homecoming ceremonies have been at the forefront of cultural debate in Australia more than a year after the Voice referendum.
Some of the renewed attention comes courtesy of their prominence ahead of major sporting events, and particularly the Giants v Lions semi-final in Sydney in September, where Aboriginal elder Brendan Kerin said they were “not meant to cater to white people”.
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“It’s a ceremony we’ve been celebrating for 250,000 years BC, and BC means Before Cook,” he told the crowd, referring to Captain James Cook’s arrival in Australia in 1770, before European settlement.
Kerin said the practice was not a welcome to Australia, but that “within Australia we have many Aboriginal lands, and we refer to our lands as ‘Country’, so it is always a welcome to the lands they have gathered on.” “.
“Before colonization, you could get into a lot of trouble for walking on someone else’s land and not being welcome on that land,” the Marrawarra and Barkindji man said.
The reaction to Storm’s decision has been, unsurprisingly, lively online, with football fans divided on the issue.
A fan posted on X: ‘Strong leadership decision and it was about time. It is not a welcome, it is political harassment. No one welcomes someone into their home ranting about their property rights.’
Another responded: ‘Good for the storm. End divisive ceremonies.’
A third posted: ‘Thank you Storm. Finally some common sense.
Others were dismayed by the move.
Brendan Kerin, cultural educator for Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, gave a resounding welcome to country in the AFL which he said was not for white people.
The Storm say they are “very keen to let our actions (rather than words) reflect what we represent as a club in the community.”
“Another reason not to renew my Storm membership,” one X user posted.
Indigenous rapper Briggs posted: ‘Look, the cost of living means cultural recognition just isn’t viable in this economy. Cultural inclusion has a price. Storm could do it if she wanted to; “If anyone knows how to enforce a salary cap, it’s them.”
While the concept of homecoming may be old, the modern form that has permeated public life in Australia was invented just a few decades ago by television personality Ernie Dingo’s dance troupe.
The Great Outdoors presenter and his fellow dancers came up with the improvised routine in 1976 after an awkward confrontation with Māori and Cook Islanders who refused to perform at the Perth Arts Festival until they were ceremonially welcomed.
Richard Walley’s Middar Aboriginal theater group, including a young Ernie Dingo, created the ritual so the show could continue after consulting local Nyoongar elders.
On the 40th anniversary of the moment in 2016, Walley told Australian Geographic he was “surprised” but “asked the good spirits of my ancestors and the good spirits of the ancestors of the land to take care of us and “keep our guests safe while they.” We are in our country.’
“Then I spoke to the spirits of their ancestors and told them that we would take care of them here and send them back to their country.”
The musician, dancer and writer invoked blessing in the local language, sang a Nyoongar song celebrating their lands and the group performed a ceremonial dance, all of which were a huge success and struck a chord with the indigenous community.
Welcome to Country and Appreciation of Country ceremonies have been a hot topic for city councils across the country.
Welcome to country ceremonies have become a regular feature of everyday life in Australia.
Three years earlier, organizers of the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, New South Wales, obtained permission from the traditional owners of the land, and Indigenous singer Dicke Donelly performed a Welcome to Country song.
However, it was Walley’s version that really stood out and received the most attention.
It was then adopted by the Northern Territory Tourism Board, then the Australian Tourism Commission and gained a global platform when it was included in the Miss Universe beauty pageant held in Perth in 1979.
“That was kind of the catalyst, in those years, that made the public aware of cultural protocol,” Walley said.
It has since been used to greet British royalty, open the 2000 Olympic Games, open sporting events and, since 2008, for the opening of the Australian Parliament.
Along with this, Country Recognition, granted by non-indigenous people or organizations to recognize traditional owners, has also become widespread.
While the small ceremonies are intended to be friendly and inclusive, they have proven divisive, with some claiming they are a symbolic gesture and a symbol of woke culture.
Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said Australia was “saturated” with it, which was “eliminating the sacredness of certain traditional cultures and practices”.
‘It has almost become a throwaway phrase. We don’t want to see all these symbolic gestures. “We want to see real action,” he said.
Triple M Radio producer Loren Barry recently took to social media to say she didn’t understand why Pilates at her local gym had to start with the ceremony.
‘I am totally in favor of welcoming the country. But I think when you have the same people in classes every day, you are welcome,” he said.