Welcome To Country, But It Will Cost You

Image: Matt Hrkac
Australian taxpayers paid $450,000 between 2022-2024 for government departments to host Welcome To Country ceremonies.
Welcome To Country ceremonies along with Acknowledgement Of Country statements have become a regular part of Australian life. It seems little can take place, be it a major sporting match or a daily meeting, without the occurrence of one or the other.
In spirit, Welcome To Country represents a path towards reconciliation; something that could help heal a fractured nation. In practice, however, it amounts to an absurd commercialisation of the world’s oldest continuous culture that benefits a tiny majority of power players while ignoring the real problems we face.
Welcome To Country and Smoking ceremonies cost between $300-$1500, depending on what is involved. Fees are set and collected by Land Councils, community organisations or local Elders and their representatives.
The majority of Australians with even a base knowledge of our history know that we live on land that was taken from its native people. It’s the same for many countries that were colonised. That’s how colonisation worked – it wasn’t pretty, and it left a bloody legacy lasting centuries. It’s a pain that may never be healed, and certainly not by throwing money at it.
Spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on Welcome To Country ceremonies does nothing to address the serious concerns facing Aboriginal communities, especially in remote regions where the political posturing of inner-city activists means little in terms of improving day-to-day life.
The overuse of Welcome To and Acknowledgement Of Country has diluted their cultural significance and led to increased division in Australia. Many Australians don’t feel the need to be welcomed to the country where they were born and bred. Welcomes are for visitors and strangers, not the people who already call this place home.
At a cost of nearly half a million dollars, it should be asked how those fees are being used to benefit Indigenous Australians. Whether they are contributing to bettering lives and improving wellbeing, or merely lining the pockets of bureaucrats already living off the fat of the land.
Rather than representing the benevolent symbolism of reconciliation, the only symbol involved with the monetisation of Welcome To Country is the ever present dollar sign. Australia is, and always will be, a country of immigrants.
We should all be working towards solving our problems, not exploiting them for profit.