Woman questions Welcome to Country ceremony before pilates class
Written by admin on September 30, 2024
An Australian woman has questioned why she needs to take part in a Welcome to Country ceremony before her pilates classes.
Loren Barry, a Producer at Triple M radio in Melbourne, said she did not understand why her gym sessions began with the ceremony.
Barry made it clear that she was a supporter of Welcome to Country but questioned the frequency of the ceremony.
A Welcome to Country is a ceremony performed by a local Aboriginal person of significance (usually an Elder) to acknowledge and give consent to events taking place on their traditional lands, according to the University of NSW.
“I’m all for the Welcome to Country,” Barry started.
“But I think that, when you’ve got the same people in the classes every day, you’ve been welcomed.”
Ben Fordham, host at 2GB Radio shared the same sentiment.
“I’m convinced that in a few years from now organisations will be dropping this tradition because they’ve flogged it so hard that it’s lost all meaning,” he said.
“Now, if it’s the first day of parliament of the year, do the Welcome … if you’ve got a special gathering happening, sure, go right ahead, do the Welcome.
“But we don’t need every speech to have one, we don’t need a Welcome at the start of a zoom meeting, and having the welcome to country at the start of a pilates class? Well, that’s just bizarre.”
He encouraged Australians to share their thoughts on the ceremony.
“We should be allowed to say it, the obsession of the welcome has become a bit of an open joke,” he said.
“And, let’s be fair dinkum, it’s sometimes a bit of a chore.”
Aboriginal Elder Brendan Kerin shared his thoughts after his divisive Welcome to Country at an AFL semi-final went viral earlier in September.
While the ceremony at sporting events often follows a fairly common script, Kerin’s unique take erupted in controversy, with a number of Australia’s more outspoken figures criticising Kerin and the tradition in general.
A cultural educator from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council in Sydney, Kerin addressed the controversy in a chat with NITV.
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“With all the feedback, I think we can sit back and just look at the absolute stupidity and the ignorance of what people are saying,” Kerin said.
“Seeing people like Andrew Bolt, Pauline Hanson, Jacinta Price (and) Warren Mundine (commenting) confirms that I’m on the right path.”
Elder Uncle Colin Hunter’s ceremony at the AFL grand final on Saturday was widely praised.
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