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Indigenous leaders have welcomed the country’s ceremonies, arguing the recognition is becoming a divisive tradition that trivializes the message.
Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council CEO Nathan Moran joined leading ‘No’ Voice referendum campaigner Warren Mundine to debate the issue on Sky News Australia’s jury on Sunday night.
Host Danica Di Giorgio asked the pair if Welcome to Country makes Australians feel unwelcome in their own country.
Mundine claimed Welcome to Country had been hijacked despite originally being designed to bring Australians together.
Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council CEO Nathan Moran (left) joined leading ‘No’ vote campaigner Warren Mundine (right), both expressing concern that Welcome to Country was being trivialized
‘It’s become divisive in the sense that, you know, ‘what about us, we’ve been here for a while too, this is our country’ and all that sort of thing,’ Mr Mundine said.
‘I think it’s the trivialization of it that’s the problem. We should welcome properly and you don’t have to do it at every meeting.
‘I go to some conferences and you spend half the day doing Welcome to Country.
‘The first ward, the traditional owners have been there and the elders, they have welcomed it.
‘But when you’ve just got everyone doing it over and over and over again, people are kind of turned off by it all, and that’s where I worry about that trivialisation.’
Moran argued against claims of the ceremonial welcome split, arguing that Welcome to Country was about inclusion.
The pair discussed Welcome to Country on Sky News’ The Jury with host Danica Di Giorgio (pictured left to right, Warren Mundine, Danica Di Giorgio and Nathan Moran)
However, Moran expressed similar concerns that the tradition was being downplayed.
“I don’t think it’s about division, I think it’s about inclusion. I’m concerned about trivializing it, it’s not being respected, delivered in an appropriate way, Mr Moran said.
‘I just hope it’s delivered in the right way by the right people, for myself as a representative of the Aboriginal community, we’re a democratic community, we have elected representatives who go out and represent us.
‘My concern is those things when they are not done by those who are authorized to the community.
‘People must be the actual community representatives who give welcome and/or recognition to people.
‘I’m concerned, but for people to just repeat, downplays the importance of it.
“While I recognize the fine line between trying to respect that and honor that, versus yeah, maybe just repeatedly saying something that then becomes meaningless at the end of the day is a big concern.”
The 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.
A welcome to the county can only be provided by traditional owners or custodians of the land where the event is taking place (pictured Aunty Gloria Rogers welcoming Wiradjuri country at a conference in Bathurst)
A welcome to the land can only be provided by traditional owners or custodians of the land where the event is taking place.
It is usually performed by a local Aboriginal elder to acknowledge and consent to events taking place on their traditional lands.
If a traditional owner is not available to make a welcome to the land, an acknowledgment of land can be provided instead.
A recognition of the land is a way of showing awareness and respect for traditional custodians of the land where a meeting or event takes place.
Its purpose is to recognize Aboriginal people’s continuing connection to the land and can be delivered by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.