The "Welcome to country"

ceremony has now been joined by a "farewell to country" for departing visitors and a "welcome to the world" for newborns as well as words of "acknowledgment".

All this is very new. It is not the thousands of years old tradition that people are often led to believe.  While there were ceremonies between tribes where visitors were acknowledged and welcomed they were not the sort of "welcome to country" ceremonies which are now part of so many events.

The first recorded "welcome to country" ceremony seems to have come about in 1973. It was held at the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin after an aboriginal activist challenged the organisers to recognise the local aboriginal people.  The initiative was a highly political one organised by the national student union and it received money from the federal government. 

Three years later two indigenous entertainers developed another ceremony in order to welcome a group of Maori entertainers. There was nothing "traditional" about this at all.. They were simply trying to make their Maori guests feel welcome and comfortable.

Now we have a situation where a "welcome to country" ceremony is held at most major events. It is often reported as being "traditional" and as having some sort of special or even sacred significance. What you want to believe about it all is up to you.

A "farewell to country" is now apparently also something we need to consider. One such ceremony is reported to have taken place at the passing out ceremony in a major army training centre. Why it took place I am not sure. I suspect it is more political than traditional. 

And the "welcome to the world" ceremony is apparently just a few years old. It dates back to just 2018 and it seems to occur in only rare instances. It is not traditional but yesterday I was vehemently told otherwise by someone who identifies as aboriginal.

When I attended R...'s funeral I was surrounded by people who were very definitely aboriginal. They did not hold any sort of traditional ceremony. It was a straightforward Christian service. The most "traditional" thing was a little spoken in the language used by some of those who had travelled from a very remote community to get there.  If a welcome to country was so traditional would not it have preceded the service? Surely it would have because it was being held on the land of a different tribal group and members of it were present. 

I think this is what bothers me more than anything. We are being told that we must allow these ceremonies and respect them  because they are traditional and they are of special significance to the original inhabitants. If that were really the case and if the people conducting them really are aboriginal then I am more than willing to respect their beliefs and traditions.  If on the other hand they are relatively modern inventions designed for purposes other than the stated ones then I feel uncomfortable. I know aboriginal people who also feel uncomfortable. The past may have a part in the future but modern politics should not be able to influence a past that may not even have existed.