NRL 2025: Melbourne Storm’s Welcome to Country performance canned on Anzac Day
The Welcome to Country ceremony at the Storm’s annual Anzac Day clash was controversially cancelled at the last minute, but the NRL club insists it was a ‘miscommunication of expectations’.
NRL
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Melbourne Storm says there was a “miscommunication of expectations” after Indigenous groups prepared to perform a Welcome To Country ceremony at the club’s Anzac Day game on Friday night, but were told not to do so.
Indigenous groups, who believed they were scheduled to perform in the lead up to the Storm’s NRL clash against South Sydney Rabbitohs at AAMI Park, were fuming after their performance never went ahead.
The Storm’s statement read: “There was a miscommunication of expectations regarding the use (of) Welcome to Country at Melbourne Storm events throughout the year. We acknowledge and accept the timing and miscommunication was not ideal and we have spoken to the groups concerned this afternoon.”
The Herald Sun revealed last December that Storm planned to scale back Welcome To Country ceremonies at its games, though the club added it would “continue these acknowledgments at culturally significant celebrations”.
The National Indigenous Times on Friday reported performances from Djirri Djirri, a Wurundjeri dance group, the Maori Ngā Mātai Pūrua, were planned, but none took place before the game.
It reported that Aunty Joy and Djirri Djjiri said in a statement the Melbourne Storm chief executive told them the board “didn’t feel comfortable” with the Welcome to Country after the booing earlier in the day. The statement said the board were “happy” for them to still “dance to represent the ‘Welcome’”.
“We were in shock and disbelief,” they said.
It is understood the Storm then apologised and reversed their decision. However, Aunty Joy told National Indigenous Times all parties declined to take part, “even after the Storm asked us to reconsider”.
“We strongly regard this as being totally tokenistic and goes completely against their [Melbourne Storm’s] journey of reconciliation …[we] feel very disrespected,” Aunty Joy and Djirri Djjiri said in the statement.
“What we do isn’t a performance, it’s cultural ceremony and protocol. We strongly feel this action was unnecessary and has caused hurt and disbelief in what we thought was a good relationship with Melbourne Storm.”
The Storm ran an Acknowledgement of Country message on the big screens before their Anzac commemoration.
Originally published as NRL 2025: Melbourne Storm’s Welcome to Country performance canned on Anzac Day
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