Welcome to Country

BALLARAT, Australia — Warm welcomes are part and parcel of any successful event, official function, exhibit or any such gathering. Top on the program of activities is usually the welcoming or opening remarks. Making people feel welcome is key to full and dynamic participation moving forward. It is true for business gatherings and so very integral to many cultures including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In every official public gathering or socio-civic meeting I attend here, I witness and hear an Acknowledgement of Country greeting at the start of the event. Here is one of the ways in which I have heard it expressed: “I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and play and pay my respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging.”

While an Acknowledgement of Country may be delivered by anyone, I have had the honor of doing this on many occasions as a community leader, a Welcome to Country is delivered by indigenous people or by the traditional custodians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.

Welcome to Country has always been a moving ceremony for me. This is not your run-of-the-mill opening remark. Not the one you wish would be as brief as possible so you can hear the inspiring and much sought-after guest speaker or partake of the feast laid out at an extravagant festival.

It involves an Elder or their descendants welcoming humble me and the rest of the congregation gathered to their beautiful and bountiful continent. The words are often simple and essential, devoid of frills. They are deep in meaning, nuances and subtexts. It strikes a chord straight to my very core. In this vast land that they and their ancestors have had stewardship over since time immemorial, they are welcoming me. They are, in essence, welcoming me to their home. They assure us that if we come over and care for everyone and everything as if they were our very own, we are allowed safe passage and live in harmony among their people. “If you look after land, land will look after you,” said a soft-spoken descendant of the Wathaurong people of the Kulin nation.

I glanced over at my courageous friend from South Sudan, her eyes have seen so much struggle, pain and heartache at wars and refugee camps. She smiles a serene smile back at me. We have been welcomed here. We are home, my friend, we are home.