"Welcome To Country" Speeches .......... Gone Too Far Now ??

[Chief]

Then you would suggest correct.

I thought you ran your own business and raked in money hand over fist, paying more tax than anyone?

Interesting that you have strong feelings about this, and yet you do these rituals anyway. Very interesting.

 

[Chief]

Because you're stupid.

PhatBoy's origins are not from here, and he says that two of his children are of his seed.

Who the hell says things like "of his seed"?

 

[Chief]

It's not like we would get in any trouble if they didn't welcome us to a country, true or false.

This welcome to country is nothing like the original.

How do you know?

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

Ok lets break this down.

So it is ok to have an opinion but if it is considered ignorant by your opinion, than it doesn't count.

So it is best to not have an opinion, just agree with your opinion and all is good.

Got it

No, an ignorant opinion on Welcome to Country doesn't count if you don't know the history.
I'm sure you would agree with that.

 

[South of the Yarra]

It's not like we would get in any trouble if they didn't welcome us to a country, true or false.

This welcome to country is nothing like the original.

Have you been to an original Welcome to Country?

 

[Chief]

Chief, it is my view mate, just because it is different to yours and most likely others, doesn't make it wrong.

No, the poor grasp of the facts and bad interpretation of the words spoken make it wrong.

You seem to be entrenched in this idea that the very right to hold an opinion means your opinion is right.

This is a pretty common misconception.

 

[Corn Cobbers]

Who the hell says things like "of his seed"?

 

[South of the Yarra]

You mean one where I can get into trouble if I wasn't welcomed? No one in Australia has. All we know is this new one.

Actually, many people have been to Welcome to Country's from pre 70s and 80s. Myself included.

 

[LordLucifer]

I don’t think you’ll get much sympathy from being ‘offended’ by an Aboriginal man saying WTC wasn’t invented for white people. So your agenda is a bit racist.

I have no agenda & I take great offence at being called a racist, especially by a keyboard warrior who has never ever met me nor knows a thing about me.

My issue is that the WTC ceremony, which started off as a really terrific thing, seems to be getting hijacked more & more and turned into something I doubt it was never meant to be. And as usual, anyone who criticizes this action, gets labelled a racist ............

FMD !!

 

[LordLucifer]

I thought it was a good explanation of the meaning of it.
Question is why'd it take so long?

I too thought it was very well explained plus it cleared up some genuine confusion. However, it staggered me that the indigenous folk didn't think it was necessary to explain it in such detail up until now.

 

[South of the Yarra]

You mean the one that wasn't invented for white people, which would be the original not this new one?

You are talking about matters you really have no idea about. Maybe take some time to listen.

 

[South of the Yarra]

I too thought it was very well explained plus it cleared up some genuine confusion. However, it staggered me that the indigenous folk didn't think it was necessary to explain it in such detail up until now.

Many Aboriginal people are only just starting to take power back over their own traditions, customs and beliefs. Many are still learning.

 

[South of the Yarra]

You listen to me,

Prior to colonisation, you could get yourself in a lot of trouble for walking on someone else’s lands without being welcomed onto those lands, so that's the original welcome to country.

So, what trouble can I get into if I wasn't welcomed to the MCG by uncle Colin, you can educate me by answering the question?

Fortunately, I don't need to listen to you on matters pertaining to Aboriginals. You might want to check each Mobs interpretation of Welcome to Country before you make sweeping, generalised statements.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

I am torn on this stuff. Disclaimer: I have studied and teach indigenous history.

The irony is that if I type exactly what I think/know, I'll probably end up being censored or warned by a mod who probably knows nothing about the area, or thinks they know.

The reason I'm torn is because every country seems to inevitably benefit from myth-making, but I'll say that pre-colonisation indigenous culture was tremendously varied. Different languages, traditions etc. And most of them had no clue the others existed. At all.

Maybe it's for the best that we pretend they all felt intimate connections with 'the Land', had a 'dreamtime' and 'songlines', 'smoking ceremonies' ... and chuck in a rainbow serpent if you like, too. We all sign up to the claim that footy and marngrook are intimately linked, and perhaps it's better for the culture that we do, regardless of fact.

But I'll never lose sight of the irony that at least one of the cultural groups to which we now pay tribute before games was positively genocidal. Their word for all other indigenous groups translates as "non-human", and they considered it their primary purpose in life as to wipe them out.

THANK YOU

The myth making is so tiresome, the ‘custodian of the land’ one especially.

Before and after Cook, peeps of Australia exploited each other and exploited the environment to the ends of their respective powers.

Genocidal tribal wars and species extinction - everyone was at it !

(Would just love the Marngrook - footy one to be true though !)

 

[garlic munchers]

Thought it was good actually - knew there would be backlash from people though - some very sensitive mites out there.

My kids - who have very much grown up with grandparents and other folk who would anytime a WTC is done state ‘why should I be welcomed to my own country’ - told me after this WTC they understood better why this tradition exists. Which made them feel like ‘oh so this isn’t for grandma who hates it anyway’.

If you’re demanding to be paid to give a welcome to country is not that welcome diminished?

 

[garlic munchers]

I've always understood the theory to be that as a rule, indigenous Australians' culture was always based around the 'leave it as you found it's principle.

What we call 'advancing', they call '****ing up your environment'.

Sure, nothing says leave it as you found it when your the resident pyromaniacs.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Sure, nothing says leave it as you found it when your the resident pyromaniacs.

What an extraordinarily idiotic and ignorant thing to say.

 

[Rotayjay]

a reference to Captain James Cook, who made the first recorded European contact with Australian land in 1770.

It's not the most important point, but the above is not true - the first verifiable landing by Europeans in Australia was by the Dutch in 1606, a century and a half before Lieutenant (not Captain) Cook.

Are younger generations going to have an increasingly positive attitude to things like welcome to country, or are people going to get increasingly turned off by overdoing it? I think it'll be the former.

 

[Chief]

The above is not true - the first verifiable landing by Europeans in Australia was by the Dutch in 1606, a century and a half before Lieutenant (not Captain) Cook.

This blows everything wide open!

 

[Sea fog]

One thing I've learned from touring all over Australia and attending welcome to country ceremonies in a variety of states and far and wide, is that those conducting them admit they do not know how many different nations of indigenous people there were before European settlement. Its a rich culture but doubtful if there is one truth so we accept the unique welcome to country as it is. At my workplace we have acknowledgement of country before every meeting.

 

[Chief]

If you’re demanding to be paid to give a welcome to country is not that welcome diminished?

Reading this post leaves me diminished.

 

[South of the Yarra]

I am torn on this stuff. Disclaimer: I have studied and teach indigenous history.

The irony is that if I type exactly what I think/know, I'll probably end up being censored or warned by a mod who probably knows nothing about the area, or thinks they know.

The reason I'm torn is because every country seems to inevitably benefit from myth-making, but I'll say that pre-colonisation indigenous culture was tremendously varied. Different languages, traditions etc. And most of them had no clue the others existed. At all.

Maybe it's for the best that we pretend they all felt intimate connections with 'the Land', had a 'dreamtime' and 'songlines', 'smoking ceremonies' ... and chuck in a rainbow serpent if you like, too. We all sign up to the claim that footy and marngrook are intimately linked, and perhaps it's better for the culture that we do, regardless of fact.

But I'll never lose sight of the irony that at least one of the cultural groups to which we now pay tribute before games was positively genocidal. Their word for all other indigenous groups translates as "non-human", and they considered it their primary purpose in life as to wipe them out.

Many people who teach Aboriginal history also have no idea what they are talking about. Some of them are armed with a little knowledge from one perspective and that is an exceptionally dangerous tool. Studying and teaching Aboriginal history does not guarantee people have an understanding of the history of Aboriginal people. Their lack of any understanding of Stolen Generation is an example of this.

 

[South of the Yarra]

THANK YOU

The myth making is so tiresome, the ‘custodian of the land’ one especially.

Before and after Cook, peeps of Australia exploited each other and exploited the environment to the ends of their respective powers.

Genocidal tribal wars and species extinction - everyone was at it !

(Would just love the Marngrook - footy one to be true though !)

I suggest you widen your reading.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

I suggest you widen your reading.

on Margrook? I do hope the connection is there.

on mass extinctions of Australian megafauna? It's heartbreaking, the Moa birds of New Zealand nearly made it, another 400 years and some of them would live in protected national parks today. Unfortunately they were hunted to extinction in 100 years by the Maoris. All Australia's megafauna went the same way thousands of years before that.

The Dutch and the Dodos...The british and the Tassy Tiger...Humans gonna human, the only difference is the limit to their reach.

 

[Drought Break]

I think you're getting welcome to country and acknowledgement of country confused.
The first is an important part of indigenous culture. The second is meaningless performative crap by non-indigenous at the start of every bloody meeting, lecture, performance etc

Went to a RAAF graduation ceremony for a family member. Had 5 acknowledgment to countries in a row for award presentation. Every officer that read out an award started with an acknowledgement.