"Welcome to Country" and

"Acknowledgment of Country" are two different things. They are both recent "traditions". 

The Welcome is I suppose a way of saying, "Hello, please enter." It is supposed to make people feel welcome on Aboriginal land, on the land they say has been taken from them by white settlement. It is also supposed to be a reminder that they still consider it to be their land.

Then there is the Acknowledgment - the words spoken at the beginning of a meeting or written somewhere on a page. They are words which supposedly acknowledge that the country on which the event or action has taken place belongs to those who inhabited the area before white settlement.

As I have just said both these things are recent "traditions". There is nothing to suggest that these things have been going on for the past 60,000 years as some people like to suggest. There seem to have been some formal exchanges between aboriginal people of different tribal groups prior to white settlement. These were not about "welcoming" or "acknowledging" other groups but about safety and security, especially the safety and security of those whose territory was being entered. Questions would apparently be asked about possible blood relationships and the purpose of entry. If the answers were not acceptable then retreat or fighting could occur. 

What we have now is something very different. I went to a meeting yesterday morning. It was held in a government office. There were eleven of us present. The "Chairperson" started the meeting with an Acknowledgment of Country even though nobody in the room identifies as aboriginal. After the meeting was over someone else informed me that there has been a "directive from on high" that all meetings must now start that way. 

It was meaningless. The words were spoken rapidly. Two people were getting lap tops set up and three were fiddling with papers.  Perhaps we should all have been more "respectful" and thought about the words being spoken but it was never going to happen. There are more and more people who are opposed to the increasing number of occasions on which such words are spoken. 

At the same time as this sort of thing is being demanded of us we are also being informed that "The Lord's Prayer" will no longer be used at the beginning of council meetings or in parliament. Perhaps this does represent the reality that we are now a predominantly multi-faith/atheist society - not that I have heard any objections from my multi faith and atheist friends. Many of them however do object to the use of words of Acknowledgment.

One reason for this is simple and it needs to be acknowledged too. Many of those choosing to identify as aboriginal have very little in the way of aboriginal ancestry. Their own ancestors are as responsible, often more responsible, for the past injustices than those of many others.

I am fortunate in my ancestors who migrated here. They appear to have always acted in good faith and with good intentions. They taught the next generations to do the same thing. Not everyone can say that. Even so, I am not responsible for what they did or said. The constant reminders are like rubbing a sore spot and making it worse.