Hetti Perkins' article,
Patterns of attachment to the land (The Australian May 30, 2013) is worth reading. It is an edited extract from the publication accompanying
My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
 |
| Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori's Dibirdibi Country (2008) |
The sentient power of country and the spirits who reside within it is
not to be underestimated. Still today, trespassing on another's country
is a reckless and dangerous act. It is customary in many parts of
Australia to be formally "introduced" to country by traditional
custodians, which can take the form of an exchange of sweat or a
baptismal dousing so the land will accept or sense one as a countryman
or woman and not make the newcomer sick. Almost invariably, senior
community members will walk ahead at a special site, calling to their
ancestral spirits so they will recognise and not harm the visitors.
It
is in this context that the "welcome to country" has evolved; and it is
a culturally appropriate means of brokering a social engagement with
another community by formally recognising their ties to their homelands
in the contemporary world.
It is a matter of no small concern
that there has been the inevitable invasion of anti-political
correctness creeping into this profoundly symbolic gesture of respect,
particularly in areas where the Western legal criteria used to determine
native title rights dispossess the traditional custodians from any
other form of public recognition. The criticism of federal Opposition
Leader Tony Abbott that the protocol is merely a "genuflection to
political correctness" could be applied equally to singing the national
anthem. How many Australians know all the words of the anthem, and how
many really believe that we are a nation "young and free"?
The
welcome is an appropriate way of reiterating the message that Australia
is home to the oldest continuous cultural tradition in the world, as a
counterpoint to the endless parade of men on horses immortalised in
bronze that line our city streets.
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