If you attend almost any public meeting or event in Australia these days, you’ll be greeted – some would say confronted – by a mandatory statement before it starts. Even the nation’s parliament now starts the day with this statement, ahead of the centuries-old ritual of reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Known as the Acknowledgment of Country, it is a now all-pervasive ritual of Australian life. Generally, it uses these words:
A whole industry has sprung up around Aborigines being hired by event organisers to stage Welcomes to Country
We meet here today on the lands of the traditional owners, the (Aboriginal tribe) people, and acknowledge their elders past and present.
The more zealous add ‘and emerging’ to the end, addressing Aboriginal children and the unborn as well as genuine elders. ‘Country’ refers not to the Australian nation or a state, but to the ancestral tribal lands of the locality.
It’s not just parliament and major public and sporting events rendering homage to local Aboriginal elders. My five-year-old is about to start school, and a recent Zoom parents’ meeting to explain mundane school routines, requisites and uniforms was prefaced by the headmistress – obligated by protocols imposed by Victoria’s radical-left state government – making an Acknowledgement of Country.
And if you go to a conference Down Under, be warned: there’s not just a single acknowledgement at the start of proceedings. Every single speaker feels compelled to do their own, and woe betide anyone who dares joke about or parodies the sacred words, say by acknowledging their bank manager as the traditional owner of their mortgaged home.
This practice became fashionable around the turn of the century, following the Mabo decision of Australia’s High Court that overturned the legal assumption that Australia was unsettled – terra nullius – before European settlement, substituting a concept of original native title over Australian land.
How Australia became obsessed with land acknowledgments
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20.01.2024
If you attend almost any public meeting or event in Australia these days, you’ll be greeted – some would say confronted – by a mandatory statement before it starts. Even the nation’s parliament now starts the day with this statement, ahead of the centuries-old ritual of reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Known as the Acknowledgment of Country, it is a now all-pervasive ritual of Australian life. Generally, it uses these words:
A whole industry has sprung up around Aborigines being hired........
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