Survey finds Australians think Welcome to Country ceremonies are divisive
A new survey has found the majority of Australians feel Welcome to Country have become divisive and overused, with Indigenous community leaders and academics calling for their review.
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Welcome to Country ceremonies have worn out their welcome, with exclusive new data revealing the majority of Australians feel the acknowledgments have become divisive and overused.
It comes as Indigenous community leaders and academics have called for the ceremonies’ use to be “reviewed” after the issue re-emerged during the federal election.
And it was thrown into the news again this week when a street cleaner for a Melbourne council won an unfair dismissal claim after he was sacked for objecting to an Acknowledgment of Country at a weekly team meeting.
Shaun Turner told his colleagues: “It’s getting out of hand and people are losing it, it is now being done at the opening of a postage stamp”.
He was sacked but has now won his job back.
Polling of 1005 Australians undertaken by the Institute of Public Affairs last month has revealed that, by a three to one margin, Australians believe that “Welcome to Country ceremonies have become divisive”, with 56 per cent agreeing with the statement and only 17 per cent saying they disagreed.
Feelings around Welcome to Country being performed before sporting matches and Anzac Day services were more mixed. Some 49 per cent of respondents said they should no longer be performed before games, with just 30 per cent saying they should continue.
When it came to Anzac Day, 46 per cent said they should no longer be performed, while just 34 per cent wanted them to continue.
In April, a Welcome to Country ceremony at the Melbourne Anzac Day Dawn Service was booed, sparking debate on a federal level about their continued use.
Then-opposition leader Peter Dutton said it was being overdone, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended it as “a sign of respect”.
After the election new Liberal leader Sussan Ley clarified the Liberals’ position saying: “With respect to Welcome to Country, it’s simple: if it’s meaningful, if it matters, if it resonates, then it’s in the right place. If it is done in a way that is ticking a box … then I don’t think it is relevant.”
Prominent Indigenous leader and businessman Warren Mundine revealed he had quit holding a Welcome to Country at conferences and meetings within his own company, calling them “overdone”.
“Why do we need to be saying Welcome to the Country when we work in the same office,” Mr Mundine said.
“You’re not a racist if you don’t do it.”
Mr Mundine said he was also sick of Welcome to Country being hijacked for political purposes.
“A welcome is supposed to be: ‘I’m glad you’re here’. It’s like welcoming someone into your house,” he said.
Former South Australian AFL player Tyson Lindsay, who grew up on a mission and has family links to seven Indigenous groups, including the Maraura in NSW, said it made him “cringe” when he heard Welcome to Country.
“Welcome to Country is overused, it is meant to be a sacred ceremony between tribes, not to be commercialised like a money-making machine,” Mr Lindsay said.
“I talk to my elders about it and they say it is not acceptable, every time we hear it we cringe now. It is at every meeting, every plane trip.”
Mr Lindsay claimed “a good percentage of” Indigenous Australians shared his views.
Indigenous academic Anthony Dillon also backed winding down the number of ceremonies being performed.
“There is an overkill on Welcome to Country. It is driving people mad,” Mr Dillon said.
“I find it very comical when Welcome to Country is being performed by someone who is obviously white and has no grasp of the real history.”
The cost of hosting the ceremonies and paying Indigenous people to perform them has also sparked debate.
Information released to the Coalition under Freedom of Information requests in February showed some 21 federal government departments spent an average of $1266 on each of 300 ceremonies over the past two financial years to rack up a bill of $450,000.
Mr Lindsay lashed out at paying to perform Welcome to Country.
“There are too many real issues facing Aboriginal people to be worrying about these empty symbolic gestures,” he said.
“I am looking for real change for the good rather than symbolic tokenism.”
However other Indigenous elders have spoken up in defence of Welcome to Country ceremonies.
SBS elder in residence Rhoda Roberts posted that it was a “really important” ancient cultural practice for the safe crossing of lands that was reactivated in the 1980s.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy did not comment.
‘TIME TO STOP ALL THE BOX-TICKERS’
Welcome to Country ceremonies are being hijacked by “box tickers”, an Indigenous community academic has claimed, hitting out at those who falsely claim Aboriginal heritage to get taxpayer-funded career benefits, conduct “tokenistic” ceremonies or further their careers.
Suzanne Ingram, University of Sydney academic and Aboriginal woman of the Wiradjuri nation, said the last national census where 812,000 people reported they were Indigenous – up 25 per cent from the last survey – was evidence of a dramatic jump in people “converting” to self-declare as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in order to access grants and benefits.
“We know these people as ‘box-tickers’ for the very act of ticking the box at census time or on bureaucracy forms and particularly in education institutions that collect these stats for their funding models,” Ms Ingram said.
“Box-tickers access scholarships meant to assist Aboriginal students … they fast-track their careers by ticking the box.”
Ms Ingram said box-tickers eroded the meaning of ceremonies by performing them.
“Aboriginal authority which is kinship-based has been undermined by bureaucratic practices … it is rampant,” she said. “Ceremonies done correctly are meaningful and are about sharing stories.
“These people do not have any relatedness, they have no authority to be speaking on behalf of any group, let alone welcoming other Australians.”
A federal government-defined “three-part test” applies for proof of Aboriginality, which involves someone a) being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent; b) identifying as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; and c) is accepted as such by the community in which they live.
However, the National Indigenous Australians Agency said the test generally only applies “for the purpose of determining eligibility … for (government) programs and services.”
Originally published as Survey finds Australians think Welcome to Country ceremonies are divisive
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