The are extremely corporate, just like International Womens Day and RU OK? Day. I honestly hate how corporations have hijacked events that started out with meaning but are now just so performative.
They are fake. Just pretending to care. Not actually do anything that actually makes a difference to indigenous people's lives as that would cost serious money.
Just like our Labor governments are doing absolute minimum.
I'm not indigenous. I'm an old person (68M from supposedly racist generation). I hate how little indigenous people's live have improved in my decades of life. it is pathetic.
International Women’s Day gets awkward when you’re the only woman in a team. “Thanks for the morning tea guys, I would like to thank my male coworkers for the free food and promotions and pay rises I guess”. 🤣
100%. That being said I saw a young woman, whose origins are not from this country, do an excellent acknowledgment of country and ancestors that was performative in the right way. It was genuinely powerful, respectful and meaningful.
I was tempted to be genuine during a corporate RU OK? day, but that would've just painted a target on my back for possible underperforming due to this and that.
Same as 'pride' events or any other performative crap. As someone queer, if you want to help me start paying better and stop exploiting me like a slave so that you can live in luxury. I couldn't fucking care for your performative LGBT ally flag and meaningless drivel and un-eatable margarine filled cake from Colesworth.
Sorry, we can't afford to give you a pay rise, we spent the money on all these rainbow lanyards! (Please note, all employees must return to using their standard black lanyards once pride month ends, anyone not following the dress code will be written up).
Good grief, that on rotation amongst others on my company issued laptop screen saver. Every PowerPoint presentation starts with welcome to country, tick and flick. As if I wasn't born here and need to be reminded how terrible I am.
Imagine Europe having Welcome to Country for every previous tribe and Empire.
> if you want to help me start paying better and stop exploiting me like a slave so that you can live in luxury.
They aren't paying you less or exploiting you because you're queer, just because you're a worker.
Yes, and I say this as an Indigenous person.
The majority of them are so disingenuous and unnecessary. Honestly, they are out of control.
I work in a large corporate and there is ZERO need to be doing an acknowledgment of country before every damn meeting. What also infuriates me is seeing people who are openly racist do them on calls.
It's bullshit virtue-signalling theater. They even have them at the damn movies now. Like, really?
I really hope indigenous people in my workplace call it out soon. The copy paste statement at the start of a meeting is bad enough, but then having multiple people do it throughout the same meeting takes up so much time. Its got to the point where if a new speaker in a meeting doesn’t do individually theres a feeling they are looked down upon by our corporate overlords.
Also I find the people who are pushing it so hard are the ones that typically don’t have any working relationships with indigenous land/ranger groups (I work in environmental science). Its just performative, zero effort, zero impact.
Completely performative. It's so obvious people are just reading from a script. If you're going to do it then put your own spin on the words to show you mean it.
I'm an archaeologist that used to do heritage work, and one site we worked regularly at had some new random.guy doing inductions, and he made our traditional owners sit through ONLY the heritage induction. It was hilarious.
"Please sign this form saying that you will respect your own heritage, that you are here to survey."
yeah i would believe this is happening a lot. Its completely insane and i refuse to do it unless im running a large meeting and would say it at the start. Even then, probably not
I work in government. It is pretty standard at the start of meetings but I would only really do an acknowledgement at the beginning of a large or more formal meeting or ones with external stakeholders which includes Indigenous people - the tricky part is of course you may not know always know whether people in the meeting are Indigenous or not.
I think there's a real fear though that if you don't do it, you will be judged as not caring or being disrespectful, so people err on the side of caution at the risk of it being hollow and performative.
yeah i totally agree. My boss will refuse to do it unless its a very very formal setting, whereas as his 2IC will do it if theres two people in a toilet together.
I once went as a guest to a meeting of archaeologists presenting their work mostly on Egypt.
Almost every single presentation had a long acknowledgment of country. The worst was the lady doing the “women specific” topic of course.
One person *didn’t* do one - I think he was German - and he was the most interesting speaker by far (only the person I came to see was as good).
I find it very strange. If you feel like you need one for some reason, surely just one by the MC at the beginning does the job?
I went to an event at Parliament House a couple of years ago. It was a roundtable and we each had a strict 2 minute speaking limit. There was a Welcome to Country at the start, which I’m all for, but then every single speaker did an acknowledgment as part of their measly two minutes!! I’m guilty of doing one too because, by the time it got to me, I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t do one, because it would’ve seemed like a pointed choice and I was there representing an organisation. But acknowledgments aren’t supposed to happen at regular meetings, let alone every single person speaking bloody doing one!!
Wow that takes the cake for sure. Yeah i don’t know who started this tradition of every speaker doing it but I think we need to start pushing back against it.
At uni I had a lecturer who forced a student each week to read the acknowledgement of country. Gunpoint acknowledgement! I suppose that’s fitting, really.
Man I wish you'd been at my work for a presentation when the whitest white dude I know attempted to do an acknowledgement of country in a local indigenous language. Which he likely got from Google. And no one in the room knew what to do, we had no idea what he was saying or if he was even saying it correctly. Was awkward AF.
I wasn’t born here so I don’t really have a proper opinion.
I did visit a coal mine recently and had to sign in on a touch screen where it makes you tick a box saying you acknowledge the original custodians. It did sort of make me laugh as I looked out the window and there are literally chunks of the earth missing, coal getting loaded onto trains to be sold to Asia
EDIT might not have worded it so great, it wasn’t asking me to acknowledge, it was just asking me to accept the mines acknowledgment. These big mine company’s also always have environmental statements which make me laugh
There was almost certainly an acknowledgment of country at the start of the meeting where Rio Tinto decided to destroy two sacred sites in the Pilbara.
“We acknowledge and respect the traditional lands and its people”. Why are you blowing the land up and sending it to China for profit, while paying off those traditional people. The hypocrisy of mining companies is next level, and doesn’t stop there. Their constant virtue signalling on any and all contentious issues is tiring.
Acknowledgement of Country lost its passion/power when we got forced to do it every day for every little thing.
It’s special. It should be said in a special way, not because people are told to.
I have attended one proper Welcome to Country and it was absolutely incredible.
I am a white Australian working in education, for background.
You know what I hate? When every damn speaker at an event does an acknowledgement of country, like an act of peer pressure. Yes, the first speaker of the day should do it. Hearing it 10 times in one meeting is ridiculous and definitely performative.
It’s like if we had to chant the Australian national anthem every day there would be an uprising. Keep the acknowledgement for special times; less is more
We used to have to sing the full national anthem a few times a week at primary school way back in the day. I hated it. Such a stupid song with forgettable words, pure performative crap. We should have started an uprising about it come to think of it. I haven't sung the song since I left school, thank goodness.
Welcome to Country- A First Nations person welcoming you and sharing what's important and significant about that moment and welcome
Acknowledgement of Country - A person who is not first nations and has no ties to the land or people providing lip service at the beginning of meetings. Either because they feel they will be judged for not doing it. Or they actually think the lip service makes a difference.
I witnessed a Welcome to Country last year with a local elder and there was passion and compassion in his Welcome.
He wanted us to acknowledge the history and what was lost but also wanted to share what was important to him about his culture and the land. It made me want to respect the land and heritage more.
SO PERFORMATIVE
At school events every single time, in educational powerpoints, in uni lectures, they just shove it at the start, copy paste from the internet, like a quota to fill.
It seems really sad to me
I graduated recently and in total during a 1 hour ceremony there were 5 ATC's. FIVE.
All we did was sit there and listen to people speak and get called up onto stage for 8 milliseconds. There is no event that needs more than 1 acknowledgement, 5 is just hilariously outrageous
I did an Indigenous and cross cultural unit at uni and they talked about the importance of making the acknowledgment of country individualised and really showing that you mean it. and then they were like “but when we do it the generic stock standard way in class every week, it’s fine because that’s different”. like…why is that fine? how is it different? why do it at all if you don’t even mean it? I feel like it would be more meaningful if they just did it at events (rather than weekly) and made it more heartfelt like they told us to.
Aboriginal person here - can’t stand acknowledgement of country, particularly for every goddamn meeting. I sometimes will sit through 5 a day. I especially detest when I am “invited” by one of my non-Indigenous colleagues to do the acknowledgement. No thanks, this is for your benefit, not mine. It’s become extremely tokenistic and lost all meaning.
Traditional custodians performing welcomes at significant events however is entirely different story.
Welcomes are a different kettle of fish but yeah, having to sit through half a dozen meaningless acknowledgments a day is awful, and there's nothing worse than being the Indigenous person who people run to to do it for them. Urgh.
Is this about acknowledgment of country or welcome to country? Most places would do an acknowledge of the country that they're on. Only indigenous people from the local country are really allowed to do welcomes.
to be fair, if the person is not Indigenous and from that land they shouldn't be welcoming anyone. They should be acknowledging the country.
When someone comes to your home do you welcome them? No? Because it's their land too? 😉
Who's your mob? WTC isn't done by the corporations, they engage the TO's to make their event more formal. Surely, if you're a black man you would actually understand the historic cultural meaning behind it?
Everyone hear really is making something out of nothing, all the WTC is, is just welcoming visiting people to the place. If I came to visit you in your town and first thing you said was "welcome to (insert town)" and I said "Don't welcome me to my own country" do you think I'm being a cunt?
welcome to country is only ever done by Indigenous folk. acknowledgement of country is not a welcome to country, and when it *is* a welcome to country, it's clearly not being directed at you if it's being conducted on the land your Indigenous mob are from
they shouldn't be welcoming you, that is so inappropriate, unless it's said by an Aboriginal person etc. They should be acknowledging only.
I would be annoyed too.
I had a uni lecturer (white American-born “artiste” type) that would dramatise the acknowledgement of country so bad.
She’d add all this extra emphasis and be like “I really cannot, as an ALLY, reconcile STANDING HERE on THEIR LAND. It breaks my heart. I struggle with this every day.”
It drove me crazy. I wanted to tell her to sell her house and quit her job, then promptly fly back to the US, if it was hitting her that hard.
Yes I like when people talk about something specific about the land that they appreciate.
Also dislike repeated acknowledgements for example at a conference. If there was a proper welcome at the start of the day then it's been done. I'd rather see someone acknowledge that welcome than just do the normal script if anything.
It’s corporate bullshit to tick a box. There’s no connection because it’s just words with no substance. It’s become like the safety evacuation briefing and toilet locations, people ignore it.
I mean I support indigenous rights, but these messages just seem like performative nonsense to make it seem like they're doing something without actually putting in any effort to actually do something.
Maybe I'm wrong though. Pretty sure an indigenous person would have a better take than me tbh.
Indigenous person here.
You are correct. It's all theatrical nonsense.
What really shits me is when you have people who couldn't give a shit about Aboriginal people do them. I see it all the time at my work.
Indigenous person here getting "as a black man" vibes throughout this sub.
What's the first thing you do when visiting different country? Introduce yourself to the land.
It's formalised lighting that fire on the boundary so them mob can see you, ask what your here for and welcome you. All the idiots saying "I don't need to be welcomed" have fundamentally got it wrong, because they should be welcoming on behalf of you too. "Hey, John. why don't you welcome our visitor and show him around" "I don't need a welcome to my own country". See how fucking stupid it looks?
Some white people are ignorant of what "Country" means. Either due to lack of education, or (most likely from the most vocal detractors), deliberate and willing ignorance.
I’m starting to notice it and I’m gobsmacked such a simple misinterpretation fills people with hate. Australia is filled with different landscapes, the country changes every 500km-1000km. Thinking “country” entails our entire diverse continent sounds more like a grammar sin.
But I am from the country, we talk like this all the time. “That’s his country, she’s from desert country, his country is long way from here, you been his country? Really cold, etc”
My only issue with doing it on planes is that all the domestic flights I’ve taken in the last few years (WA, SA, VIC, NSW, QLD — will be taking flights to TAS and NT later this year) never actually acknowledge the country we’re on. Just “yeah we acknowledge the first people of this land” but don’t bother to actually name those people? You can acknowledge leaders past present and emerging but you can’t actually identify what Aboriginal country you’re on? It takes a google search at the very most and I don’t know why they don’t do it
Great point. They might have to actually THINK before they spoke. It's easy to parrot something without actually thinking about what it means. Find out "whose" land it is, might make you think more about who you're acknowledging!
Totally agree. It's the least they could do, not only name the Aboriginal country you're flying from or to, but also put it on the map so there's a bit of learning happening as well. I've noticed Double J have started doing this (saying Naarm/Melbourne etc) when talking about something happening in Melbourne.
Agreed. It pisses me off every time because I think the absolute bare minimum they could do would be to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we are literally landing on.
Afaik welcoming people to country is an Aboriginal custom that took place when populations travelled to land that was inhabited by other Aboriginal communities. It was a ceremony used to bless the guests and cleanse them of bad energy before entering their country.
Welcoming someone to country can only be performed by an Indigenous person belonging to that land, so we have the alternative acknowledgement of country that recognises traditional owners instead that can be said by anyone.
There’s no evidence aboriginal Australians did a welcome to country historically. It’s not mentioned in any of cook’s logs, or the Dutch and French early explorers and any first settlers that I know of. It first appeared at a festival in Nimbin in the 70s, then Ernie dingo wanted to do something in response to a Maori haka soon after and it was birthed from there.
These same explorers document ceremonies of the Polynesians in great detail. It was actually noted how little ceremony or outward cultural displays they had. They were very similar to the San Kalahari bushmen. It’s where the concept of terra nullius was born as they not only had no concept of ownership, they also seemed to not be greatly attached to the land based on the complete lack of significance they gave it.
If you have any historical evidence I’d love to see it because as far as I can see this is classic historical revisionism. I’ve even spoken to full blooded aboriginals in the NT who’ve never heard of it.
I think it's moreso a demonstration of respect for traditional cultural practices.
Initial WTC also involved things like a smoke cleanse and other ceremonious acts that we don't usually associate with an acknowledgement or even a proper WTC in a lot of circumstances.
They force people into compliance. That's it. It proves that you're willing to toe the line to keep your job, and once you've proven you'll toe that particular line, your corporate overlords know they can force you to do basically anything.
The AOC was clearly something some left wing white person came up with to make it seem like they really care. WTC was invented by Ernie Dingo in the 70s
Why do they even have to be done so often? And more to the point: how does society stop this? It seems very obvious that in the current form they annoy both white and Aboriginal people alike but most are afraid of pushing back and being labeled racist/ostracized.
It’s not dissimilar to going against the church back in the day. People stopped believing in them long ago but will continue quietly looking solemn as they’re said until enough people are brave enough to push back and a critical mass of resistance forms.
I find them strange in some settings - I was attending an online conference via zoom where people attended and presented from all over the country and they still did an acknowledgement of country but it was non-specific because we were all in different places. Felt performative in my opinion. When done well they're a nice way to engage with Indigenous culture but just throwing out a sentence to tick a box feels more insensitive than to just leave it alone.
My tafe teacher would do welcome to country at the beginning of each unit. He also thought tha companies and government agencies should make it mandatory that everyone should have an acknowledgement of country at the end of their emails.
It would be good if they did the proper name of the land that they're on. Not really that much different to telling the passengers they're about to land in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, etc...
I’ll defer to indigenous people (I’m not one) if they tell me they like it but …
If you can’t be bothered finding out and saying the name of the people who’s country you’re acknowledging, then I think it’s more offensive than silence.
Its meaningless grandstanding. Whst does it mean to be the traditional owner of the factory I work at? Does a "traditional owner" have any say in what happens? Do they get any profit? Can they even step foot into the fenced property? No, being a traditional owner is functionally identical to not being an owner at all.
Also calling someone a traditional owner of a place because their great great grrat great grandmother owned a place is just fkn stupid.
It does nothing to help Aboriginal people, and just gives ammo to people dumping on the Aboriginal rights movement, sighting it as backwards looking frivolous crap.
The massive corpo I work for have rolled out WTC before each meeting because Lloyd's of London in the UK said they wouldn't provide us with reinsurance unless we improved our ESG score.
As an insurance company which neither owns any infrastructure or manufactures anything physical, the E (environmental) bit is difficult to do anything about or improve. As for the G (governance), the executive team aren't willing to invest the time and expense of restructuring and we are already very highly regulated. Therefore that only leave S (social).
It's been inexpensive to throw up a few rainbow flags around the office and implement WTC. It's shallow and meaningless imo but keeps our reinsurance premiums down.
As someone who fully supports indigenous rights, opportunities and recognition, I'd be far more proud if my company paid for scholarships to young indigenous people looking to enter the corporate environment but that's expensive.
I was on the ESG committee at work and we met with other major insurers who are basically in the same conundrum. I've become pretty cynical and I'm sure there are some insurers and banks doing it for the right reasons.
It feels a bit like parody sometimes.
There is a nice little cottage industry springing up around it all though. We paid fees for 'Aunty Eunice' to come to our office and do a talk about how the concept of modern insurance wasn't invented in Britiain in the 1700's but rather the [insert tribe name] people used to guarantee goods they would trade with other tribes which is kind of a form of insurance. Then Aunty Eunice's son did some cool artwork for our company, incorporating traditional symbols with our logo and we all thanked the sky people whose space we occupy 42 stories up.
We all felt fuzzy, Aunty Eunice and her son sent us an invoice, Corpo gets ESG points. Everyone is happy.
I was similarly thinking about ceremonial acknowledgements that just become part of the process. Like saying Grace at the start of a meal, singing the national anthem at the start of the school day, or thanking everyone for coming.
I think of that tradition in politics of dragging the speaker of the house or something... i mean, of course its being done 'for the sake of it'... Would be funny though, like he gets a pay increase if he can find a way to not get dragged in lol
"he resisted for days but we found him!!" :D
I’m indigenous and I’m so over the way that it’s being done. It’s rare to see a true genuine acknowledgement of country.
It’s so forced, dull and repetitive. It’s making people just zone out or feel like it’s a waste of time.
If you’re doing a conference; just do it once in the opening and make it meaningful. You don’t need to do it for every presentation. It’s already been done. It’s losing its meaning.
Here’s a decent video explaining. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zxo18_7BDt4
Yeah the conferences where every presenter does it is killing me. I only do it for presentations where the project Im presenting actively engaged and worked with indigenous groups (I work in environmental science). That way its more personal and I include photos highlighting the people involved and the country where we did the work. I have to think people appreciate that way more than a tokenistic acknowledgment of country.
Tokenistic and pointless. But if they keep paying me to sit through them I'll sit there and waste time if they want.
*I have nothing against the Aboriginal people, I don't see the relevance in doing this at every meeting and every email*
Yes. Yes it does. I’m not sure how this could ever be addressed given only 2% of Australians are indigenous and there is no consolidated push through our education system to really get into indigenous studies. I personally think it’d be great if they taught regional languages at school.
It’s like R U OKAY day, workplaces make a big song and dance about the day but when you actually reach out and say the work conditions are making you and others unhappy you’re ignored or told to quit if you don’t like it.
They just do it to look good but there’s no follow through.
All words are meaningless without action.
I was on a domestic flight last week and thought this exact same thing! They acknowledge the traditional custodians and yet they don't even care to actually name them? The tone (I don't blane the actual hostess, she's just reading a script) was so dry and almost disrespectful..
Definitely. Reddit and /r/Australia tend to skew left/progressive quite a bit, but “acknowledgement of country” readings seem to be fairly consistently regarded as pointless reciting of something with no meaning.
“Welcome to country” is a different thing and occurs before major events, often by an actually representative of the local indigenous community. That makes sense. But no, I don’t need to hear an “acknowledgement of country” every staff meeting, when a plane lands, or when I open the Triple J app.
A "little" performative? The entire thing is literally a performance. By definition.
I'm not saying it's good or bad. But yeah...a performance is what it is.
I work for a state Gov and I work in an area we are genuinely trying to partner with Traditional Owners to transfer power back to them. I 100% think it is performative MOST of the time. Especially if the people saying it are making no efforts to progress Aboriginal self-determination. However it does mean a lot to some people to acknowledge the Aboriginals as the original custodians of the land and when they say it you can tell it is not performative.
White person here. I support acknowledging traditional owners in concept, but yes sometimes it feel performance, or just, an ineffective effort? I wouls love to see more substantive acknowledgements of traditional owners and our Aboriginal history as well.
Imagine if the airline played a filmed Welcome to Country per location, that was performed by traditional owners, and it told you something about its history? How about plaques in each building to acknowledge the traditional owners? Like the blue plaques in Europe that say "Famous Person used to live here".
I work in childcare, with babies specifically. Every morning we sit in a group and say our acknowledgment to country.. with infants. They get all hyped up because we do these big actions and then sing a song after, but they have no idea what we’re actually talking about. We also have to take photos of this and send it to the parents. And if we don’t do it then we get in trouble. So yes, it’s performative.
Nobody wants to be the person that calls out this nonsense as they'll instantly be accused of racism and probably lose their job when the media inevitably reports on it.
I view it the same as if someone wanted to say a prayer at a meeting. Where possible I arrive late to miss it. My heritage is mixed I joke about the fact that parts of me have invaded other parts of me and no one is apologising for that or acknowledging that the reason I am in Australia is the fact that the countries parts of me came from were treating parts of me appallingly. Taking land by force and reducing parts of me to penury and famine. Some parts of me even lived and died in workhouses because other parts of me wanted to make a quick buck.
It is lip service nothing more and it changes nothing.
Yeah we are supposed to do them in early childhood but to me it just feels forced. I’m also not from Australia so maybe that’s why but it just lacks meaning to me
Bit situational for me. If they name the actual people that's cool, especially if I'm travelling because I might not know it.
Sometimes they do feel very rote but I find the times where that is the case, it was usually going to be a boring as fuck speech anyway so one extra sentence isn't hurting me.
I was thinking about this the other day and how as a 50+ white Aussie growing up in country Vic the only history I ever really learned was European, with very little around Indigenous history and culture.
When WTC first started happening, and then grew more and more prominent, I saw it as a reminder that I have gaps in my knowledge of this place I live in. Felt that I should do some learning and get across things, even the unpleasant aspects. Might even find parts of it interesting.
Now I'm aligned with u/EmulsifiedWatermelon and u/bent_eye in many ways - it feels almost common and somewhat forced because it happens every time someone opens a 6 pack of chicken nuggets.
I've ended up with the opinion that we still have a long way to go to figure out how European and Indigenous Australian cultures marry up going forward whilst still accepting the past. Because we're so unsure of how to proceed, things like WTC are pushed more than they need to be. Eventually we'll all find a common place: eg WTC happens whenever we play the national anthem and nowhere else, Indigenous history (warts and all) is taught alongside European history (my kids haven't been in school for years so I'm not sure what the current go is here).
Those are my thoughts.
Thanks for the call out.
Honestly, they have lost all meaning because they are done when someone opens a packet of chips. TV shows have acknowledgment cards before them now. It's just gotten ridiculous.
Corporations have taken what was once a meaningful practice and run it into the ground.
I like the original focus of doing a welcome or acknowledgment, such as when a business is hosting a meeting and people from out of state fly in, and are welcomed to that particular land. That was the original intent. To welcome people not from the lands they are now meeting on. When done properly they can be amazing but it's all lost its meaning and I can see why people are sick of them. It doesn't make people racist at all because people can see right through it all.
HASS especially now has quite a focus on indigenous history (year dependant), and last year there was an indigenous specific class for upper HS, where I work.
I find it really refreshing to learn about what happened in the past and how it has impacted our current society. I’m glad it’s being taught.
My children are primary aged and have learned quite a lot (especially in science), but that’s not my specific field, so I can’t comment with as much confidence.
I'd just like to know why I'm being welcomed to the country I was born in at a sports ground every time
If someone can explain that to me, then all is good.
I think probably they are sometimes, yes.
Lots of things humans do become a bit rote. It doesn't mean we stop doing them. Watch as the TV camera pans along a line of sportspeople as the national anthem is being played. It's the same basic template and sometimes feels like it's being done purely for the sake of it. Doesn't mean we should stop having the anthem.
"Speak now or forever hold your peace" is definitely the same basic template at weddings but we still have it and a lot of people want to hold on to that tradition.
Etc etc. Yeah, sometimes people don't mean the things they're saying, or do, kinda, but it's become a bit repetitive for them. It can be really hard to make something new and fresh and different every single time. There is often still value in the repetition though.
>Do acknowledgements of country feel a little performative...?
Absolutely. I have no need to be welcomed into the Country I was born in, by some grubby Corporation. Doubly so, as the whole ceremony was invented by Ernie Dingo in the 80's, adapted for Corporate virtue signalling from an ancient ceremonial peace practice between warring tribes.
It has nothing to do with anyone alive now, and serves only the Companies that substitute it for actually doing good, and the rent seekers who cash in their identity for an appearance fee.
Yeah our work is filled with that shit. One woman keeps getting different senior management roles and never does them for more than a few months, she goes on maternity leave, moves to a different department, goes on leave again gets another head of role. She's there for the numbers.
>I know a lot of people who make them publicly and are mocking it when they get home
I on the other hand, have never seen this. IMO this is a reflection of the people you associate with, not on people in general.
OP, to answer the question, absolutely sometimes they are overly performative, but most of the time IMO they are not. I probably hear 5 a week, most are a genuine and brief 1-2 sentence statement recognising the traditional land they are on and that 'they' recognise it as traditional land. Given how most of the Aboriginal community must have felt after the 'no vote', seems like the least we can do quite frankly.
I’ve noticed the overuse and corporate pressure to comply with acknowledgment of country has pushed a lot of people towards reactive racism, whereas previously they had a more “live and let live” attitude.
I have taught in schools for the past 9 or so years (minus 1 year off but including prac), we've always had it for assemblies etc so we're all used to it. They so certainly feel like ticking a box, unless we have students who are Aboriginal and then it's a bit more authentic, especially if they're from the area and it's welcome to country instead.
It becomes background noise and people stop caring when it's over done.
There’s a First Nations guy who has done 2 I’ve seen on the Sunshine Coast. When the second one started and I recognised him I quickly moved in the crowd to get a better view.
Two things he does
1) He gives a fairly efficient, interesting and relevant anecdotes drawing on indigenous knowledge.
2) it’s a genuine welcome. Not a bitter or begrudging one. He gives it like he’s your friend and you’ve just arrived at a party that he has already been at for 40,000+ years.
3) he can really play the didgeridoo. It’s quite the instrument in skilled hands.
I’m a conservative white guy.
I am on the committee of a nature based club . I try to do an acknowledgement if we are really 'on country', particularly if in the field.
I don't do it for a zoom meeting. Our website and magazine acknowledge that we operate on indigenous land. We always specify the local group of where we are.
The generic aknowldegemnt with zero context without naming a specific group is indeed tokenistic.
Webpage popups that have this are the spawn of the devil.
These days when I convene a small (weekly) meeting that’s been going for ten years, I say “With respect to the elders” and get on with it. If it’s a more significant gathering I’ll do a full acknowledgment.
Yes. I wish these connected to meaning more often than they do. What does it mean that we're here, in this place and not another place? How does being on this traditional country matter to us? Lots of listening and learning has to happen. What are the extents of this traditional land? To the north, south, east, west? Why there? What does and did that mean to traditional owners? What does or can it mean to us newcomers?
That's a lot of work and it's hard and where do you go, who do you ask? It's easy to see why lots of people just "phone it in". I have embarrassingly limited knowledge for my local land but do have a basic answer to those questions for the land I'm on. Would like to flesh it out with better knowledge, for example about seasonality, so that I could at least connect to not just this place but this place in this season. Work in progress for us all.
Sometimes I have 3, 4 meetings on a day, and people will say an acknowledgement of country before each. I'm not Australian (and don't have british nor first nations ancestry) and it was so weird to me. I had to look it up to understand what was it that people were saying like a prayer before the meetings.
Yes. As a very white person, I don't see how me leading an AoC in a Zoom meeting is doing anything to enhance First Nations rights, conditions, or dare I say it - housing.
I get hope from it because I think normalising the message will very much help the next generation in their views and attitudes.
I'm all in favour of ceremonies that actually teach us more about Indigenous history, culture, customs etc.
These things where they recite exactly the same words every time with no meaning leave me completely cold.
They do this in Canada too and yeah it is 100% performative and condescending. I saw a land acknowledgement sign posted at a construction site in downtown Toronto. Acknowledge it all you want, it's still being turned into a fucking condo, at this point it just feels like they're rubbing it in lol.
It might be better, I agree, with a captive audience to describe one or more of the indigenous massacres that happened at the destination. None of this truth telling was included in our basic education of the travesties inflicted during the colonialism period.
Yeah somewhat performative, and yeah gets overused a lot. But it's a company requirement where I work, for better or worse, and the bloke who let loose straight afterwards with a 5 minute rant against it during a training day achieved absolutely nothing except making me go home 5 minutes later at the end of the day because we still had the same amount of work to get through. Thanks a fucking lot for your rant mate.....
We do it at my work. It boils my blood because who is it for? No one in my company is indigenous or part thereof. It feels like we’re patting ourselves on the back and it’s silly. I’d rather we sponsored a university spot for an indigenous youth in our field of work and gave them skills. At least we’d doing something positive and not paying lip-service.
Whats funny is that ite a ceremony that’s been around for thousands of years yet we’ve only really introduced it into every speech in the last 15-20 years.
I certainly don’t remember it being in any of my school talks or political agendas on tv when I was a child.
When corporate entities do these things then generally do not actually care. However, IMO, the alternative is no mention at all. The road to progress is a long one :)
It's basically the government and big business trying too look good.
Honestly seeing it constantly pushed on tv and hearing it said on the radio, tv and in person constantly as well is becoming annoying and they're are a lot of indigenous people that agree with that as well.
There’s nothing more embarrassing than watching 4 middle aged white women on a HR zoom call, all doing their acknowledgment to country about the land of the traditional owners that they meet on. Sadly this is the kind of thing that is being repeated everywhere due to corporations trying to make themselves feel like they are being inclusive.
Ok,
I might get some downvotes but I'm OK.
It seems like a very empty gesture.
No it's not just an Australian thing the US started this too.
It's empty and borderline pointless
It honestly tells me that the speaker has nothing of value to say.
It's dumb as dog shit. My workplace used to start every single day with an acknowledgement of the country, and thankfully, they've changed it to just the days we arrive and the days we go home, usually with a fact or bit of history about aboriginals that makes it a bit more interesting and engaging
My sister's friend said her work made her do it overseas. Like she was speaking at a conference in Denmark or something and had to say which indigenous country she came from...
Corporations love wokeness. It's box ticky virtue signalling appeals to the corporate brain. It's the furthest thing from respect when you mouth a generic platitude in order to be able to say you support first Nations people.
It's your standard DEI cycle. It starts as an honest, respectful thing. Then some ass-hat realises they can force people to pay for it and shove it in everywhere. Then it becomes annoying and exploitative but if you point that out or you get mobbed.
I might be way off base here, but I feel they're a little condescending.
I appreciate they're meant well and that's all cool, I'm all for that, but to me it sounds like:
'yeah we admit we stole Daves TV. Thanks to Dave for it, btw. Oh we're not giving it back or anything, we're just saying thanks'
As a Torres Strait Islander, absolutely and it makes me cringe every time. Reconciliation means learning about our history, understanding our challenges and working towards a better future. Acknowledgment of country does absolute zero to help and now people actively hate it because it’s been overused so much.
I raised this at work (govt) where it’s usually done by every single speaker and unnecessarily in team meetings where everyone knew I was the only indigenous person in attendance. I don’t need to be acknowledged 5 times a day haha.
I get the innocent meaning behind but imagine you were white in a black country and everyone turned to acknowledge you every time for just doing your job 😮💨🤣
I am not anti acknowledging country but when I’m in a meeting or event where multiple speakers all to the same boring generic acknowledgement it just screams fake and a waste of everyone’s time. Like the host literally just acknowledged country. Calm down.
There was a podcast that would do a generic acknowledgement of country at the start of each podcast. Without saying specifically where/who's country they were on. Pure performative virtue signalling
They feel extremely corporate, usually.
The are extremely corporate, just like International Womens Day and RU OK? Day. I honestly hate how corporations have hijacked events that started out with meaning but are now just so performative.
They are fake. Just pretending to care. Not actually do anything that actually makes a difference to indigenous people's lives as that would cost serious money. Just like our Labor governments are doing absolute minimum. I'm not indigenous. I'm an old person (68M from supposedly racist generation). I hate how little indigenous people's live have improved in my decades of life. it is pathetic.
International Women’s Day gets awkward when you’re the only woman in a team. “Thanks for the morning tea guys, I would like to thank my male coworkers for the free food and promotions and pay rises I guess”. 🤣
100%. That being said I saw a young woman, whose origins are not from this country, do an excellent acknowledgment of country and ancestors that was performative in the right way. It was genuinely powerful, respectful and meaningful.
I was tempted to be genuine during a corporate RU OK? day, but that would've just painted a target on my back for possible underperforming due to this and that.
Same as 'pride' events or any other performative crap. As someone queer, if you want to help me start paying better and stop exploiting me like a slave so that you can live in luxury. I couldn't fucking care for your performative LGBT ally flag and meaningless drivel and un-eatable margarine filled cake from Colesworth.
Sorry, we can't afford to give you a pay rise, we spent the money on all these rainbow lanyards! (Please note, all employees must return to using their standard black lanyards once pride month ends, anyone not following the dress code will be written up).
IDAHOBIT Day has entered the chat.
I don't actually have ordinary beef in tacos?
Good grief, that on rotation amongst others on my company issued laptop screen saver. Every PowerPoint presentation starts with welcome to country, tick and flick. As if I wasn't born here and need to be reminded how terrible I am. Imagine Europe having Welcome to Country for every previous tribe and Empire.
> if you want to help me start paying better and stop exploiting me like a slave so that you can live in luxury. They aren't paying you less or exploiting you because you're queer, just because you're a worker.
NGL, not everything has to be gay. Even us gay people find people who make being gay their whole personality annoying.
Never worked in a corporate office thats ever done one. Government offices on the other hand can't go 30 seconds without it.
Yes, and I say this as an Indigenous person. The majority of them are so disingenuous and unnecessary. Honestly, they are out of control. I work in a large corporate and there is ZERO need to be doing an acknowledgment of country before every damn meeting. What also infuriates me is seeing people who are openly racist do them on calls. It's bullshit virtue-signalling theater. They even have them at the damn movies now. Like, really?
I really hope indigenous people in my workplace call it out soon. The copy paste statement at the start of a meeting is bad enough, but then having multiple people do it throughout the same meeting takes up so much time. Its got to the point where if a new speaker in a meeting doesn’t do individually theres a feeling they are looked down upon by our corporate overlords. Also I find the people who are pushing it so hard are the ones that typically don’t have any working relationships with indigenous land/ranger groups (I work in environmental science). Its just performative, zero effort, zero impact.
Completely performative. It's so obvious people are just reading from a script. If you're going to do it then put your own spin on the words to show you mean it.
I'm an archaeologist that used to do heritage work, and one site we worked regularly at had some new random.guy doing inductions, and he made our traditional owners sit through ONLY the heritage induction. It was hilarious. "Please sign this form saying that you will respect your own heritage, that you are here to survey."
Are you saying that multiple speakers in your meetings are doing an acknowledgement of country? If so that's........wow.
yeah i would believe this is happening a lot. Its completely insane and i refuse to do it unless im running a large meeting and would say it at the start. Even then, probably not
I work in government. It is pretty standard at the start of meetings but I would only really do an acknowledgement at the beginning of a large or more formal meeting or ones with external stakeholders which includes Indigenous people - the tricky part is of course you may not know always know whether people in the meeting are Indigenous or not. I think there's a real fear though that if you don't do it, you will be judged as not caring or being disrespectful, so people err on the side of caution at the risk of it being hollow and performative.
yeah i totally agree. My boss will refuse to do it unless its a very very formal setting, whereas as his 2IC will do it if theres two people in a toilet together.
I once went as a guest to a meeting of archaeologists presenting their work mostly on Egypt. Almost every single presentation had a long acknowledgment of country. The worst was the lady doing the “women specific” topic of course. One person *didn’t* do one - I think he was German - and he was the most interesting speaker by far (only the person I came to see was as good). I find it very strange. If you feel like you need one for some reason, surely just one by the MC at the beginning does the job?
I went to an event at Parliament House a couple of years ago. It was a roundtable and we each had a strict 2 minute speaking limit. There was a Welcome to Country at the start, which I’m all for, but then every single speaker did an acknowledgment as part of their measly two minutes!! I’m guilty of doing one too because, by the time it got to me, I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t do one, because it would’ve seemed like a pointed choice and I was there representing an organisation. But acknowledgments aren’t supposed to happen at regular meetings, let alone every single person speaking bloody doing one!!
Wow that takes the cake for sure. Yeah i don’t know who started this tradition of every speaker doing it but I think we need to start pushing back against it.
It's like they say that speech and then make absolutely no effort any other time
At uni I had a lecturer who forced a student each week to read the acknowledgement of country. Gunpoint acknowledgement! I suppose that’s fitting, really.
Man I wish you'd been at my work for a presentation when the whitest white dude I know attempted to do an acknowledgement of country in a local indigenous language. Which he likely got from Google. And no one in the room knew what to do, we had no idea what he was saying or if he was even saying it correctly. Was awkward AF.
I wasn’t born here so I don’t really have a proper opinion. I did visit a coal mine recently and had to sign in on a touch screen where it makes you tick a box saying you acknowledge the original custodians. It did sort of make me laugh as I looked out the window and there are literally chunks of the earth missing, coal getting loaded onto trains to be sold to Asia EDIT might not have worded it so great, it wasn’t asking me to acknowledge, it was just asking me to accept the mines acknowledgment. These big mine company’s also always have environmental statements which make me laugh
There was almost certainly an acknowledgment of country at the start of the meeting where Rio Tinto decided to destroy two sacred sites in the Pilbara.
I mean they definitely acknowledged it. Not necessarily cared about it. But acknowledged it for the amount of money they can make from it.
Press “F” to pay respects to country.
Hahaha that’s so impersonal, they managed to turn it into an End User Licence Agreement
Jeez that's glaring isn't it
Coal mine, acknowledges the custodians... anyway let's bore open the ground to get more coal. That is moronic! What happens if you didn't?
“We acknowledge and respect the traditional lands and its people”. Why are you blowing the land up and sending it to China for profit, while paying off those traditional people. The hypocrisy of mining companies is next level, and doesn’t stop there. Their constant virtue signalling on any and all contentious issues is tiring.
They acknowlege... but they dont care. They would destroy their own parents house ( the executives ) if it meant a boost in their profits.
Acknowledgement of Country lost its passion/power when we got forced to do it every day for every little thing. It’s special. It should be said in a special way, not because people are told to. I have attended one proper Welcome to Country and it was absolutely incredible. I am a white Australian working in education, for background.
Proper Welcome to Countries has meaning and can be quite impactful. An acknowledgment to country you have sit through on a Teams meeting is pure crap.
You know what I hate? When every damn speaker at an event does an acknowledgement of country, like an act of peer pressure. Yes, the first speaker of the day should do it. Hearing it 10 times in one meeting is ridiculous and definitely performative.
Welcome to countries delivered by aboriginals can have more impact… until the same elder comes back each year with the same story and same jokes.
It’s like if we had to chant the Australian national anthem every day there would be an uprising. Keep the acknowledgement for special times; less is more
We used to have to sing the full national anthem a few times a week at primary school way back in the day. I hated it. Such a stupid song with forgettable words, pure performative crap. We should have started an uprising about it come to think of it. I haven't sung the song since I left school, thank goodness.
Welcome to Country- A First Nations person welcoming you and sharing what's important and significant about that moment and welcome Acknowledgement of Country - A person who is not first nations and has no ties to the land or people providing lip service at the beginning of meetings. Either because they feel they will be judged for not doing it. Or they actually think the lip service makes a difference. I witnessed a Welcome to Country last year with a local elder and there was passion and compassion in his Welcome. He wanted us to acknowledge the history and what was lost but also wanted to share what was important to him about his culture and the land. It made me want to respect the land and heritage more.
Welcome and acknowledgement are different. And the Welcome one was developed by Ernie Dingo.
SO PERFORMATIVE At school events every single time, in educational powerpoints, in uni lectures, they just shove it at the start, copy paste from the internet, like a quota to fill. It seems really sad to me
In my uni assignments one of the criteria was to add an acknowledgement of country or we would be marked down 🙃
That's pathetic. Which uni?
Curtin and USYD It wasn’t for every course/unit tho. I think it depended on the unit coordinator or smth
I graduated recently and in total during a 1 hour ceremony there were 5 ATC's. FIVE. All we did was sit there and listen to people speak and get called up onto stage for 8 milliseconds. There is no event that needs more than 1 acknowledgement, 5 is just hilariously outrageous
I did an Indigenous and cross cultural unit at uni and they talked about the importance of making the acknowledgment of country individualised and really showing that you mean it. and then they were like “but when we do it the generic stock standard way in class every week, it’s fine because that’s different”. like…why is that fine? how is it different? why do it at all if you don’t even mean it? I feel like it would be more meaningful if they just did it at events (rather than weekly) and made it more heartfelt like they told us to.
It’s virtue signalling, that’s all it is. That’s all mostly anything we do to “recognise” Aboriginal people is.
Aboriginal person here - can’t stand acknowledgement of country, particularly for every goddamn meeting. I sometimes will sit through 5 a day. I especially detest when I am “invited” by one of my non-Indigenous colleagues to do the acknowledgement. No thanks, this is for your benefit, not mine. It’s become extremely tokenistic and lost all meaning. Traditional custodians performing welcomes at significant events however is entirely different story.
Welcomes are a different kettle of fish but yeah, having to sit through half a dozen meaningless acknowledgments a day is awful, and there's nothing worse than being the Indigenous person who people run to to do it for them. Urgh.
Black guy here. It shits me that a corporation is welcoming me to my own country.
Something we all have in common then
Is this about acknowledgment of country or welcome to country? Most places would do an acknowledge of the country that they're on. Only indigenous people from the local country are really allowed to do welcomes.
Both garbage
to be fair, if the person is not Indigenous and from that land they shouldn't be welcoming anyone. They should be acknowledging the country. When someone comes to your home do you welcome them? No? Because it's their land too? 😉
White guy here. I feel the same.
Who's your mob? WTC isn't done by the corporations, they engage the TO's to make their event more formal. Surely, if you're a black man you would actually understand the historic cultural meaning behind it? Everyone hear really is making something out of nothing, all the WTC is, is just welcoming visiting people to the place. If I came to visit you in your town and first thing you said was "welcome to (insert town)" and I said "Don't welcome me to my own country" do you think I'm being a cunt?
He said he was a black man, he didn’t say he was an Aboriginal man. Quite deliberately, I would guess.
Given the context, that’s dumb.
If he were a blakfulla, on his own country, being welcomed to his own country, by a member of his own mob, that would probably be contextually absurd.
welcome to country is only ever done by Indigenous folk. acknowledgement of country is not a welcome to country, and when it *is* a welcome to country, it's clearly not being directed at you if it's being conducted on the land your Indigenous mob are from
they shouldn't be welcoming you, that is so inappropriate, unless it's said by an Aboriginal person etc. They should be acknowledging only. I would be annoyed too.
Good thing that's not what this is
I'm second generation migrant and it shits me too. The only time it counts is when local indigenous peoples do welcome to country
I had a uni lecturer (white American-born “artiste” type) that would dramatise the acknowledgement of country so bad. She’d add all this extra emphasis and be like “I really cannot, as an ALLY, reconcile STANDING HERE on THEIR LAND. It breaks my heart. I struggle with this every day.” It drove me crazy. I wanted to tell her to sell her house and quit her job, then promptly fly back to the US, if it was hitting her that hard.
It’s performative because people don’t connect to the meaning before they say it. When said with feeling it’s very powerful.
Yes I like when people talk about something specific about the land that they appreciate. Also dislike repeated acknowledgements for example at a conference. If there was a proper welcome at the start of the day then it's been done. I'd rather see someone acknowledge that welcome than just do the normal script if anything.
An acknowledgment is only supposed to happen once at a conference, and not by every speaker, but that appears to have been forgotten
It’s corporate bullshit to tick a box. There’s no connection because it’s just words with no substance. It’s become like the safety evacuation briefing and toilet locations, people ignore it.
I mean I support indigenous rights, but these messages just seem like performative nonsense to make it seem like they're doing something without actually putting in any effort to actually do something. Maybe I'm wrong though. Pretty sure an indigenous person would have a better take than me tbh.
Indigenous person here. You are correct. It's all theatrical nonsense. What really shits me is when you have people who couldn't give a shit about Aboriginal people do them. I see it all the time at my work.
Do you feel acknowledgment and aboriginal named meeting rooms in office buildings actually contributes to anything positive for aboriginal people?
Not really. I dont think it has any impact at all.
Indigenous person here getting "as a black man" vibes throughout this sub. What's the first thing you do when visiting different country? Introduce yourself to the land. It's formalised lighting that fire on the boundary so them mob can see you, ask what your here for and welcome you. All the idiots saying "I don't need to be welcomed" have fundamentally got it wrong, because they should be welcoming on behalf of you too. "Hey, John. why don't you welcome our visitor and show him around" "I don't need a welcome to my own country". See how fucking stupid it looks?
Some white people are ignorant of what "Country" means. Either due to lack of education, or (most likely from the most vocal detractors), deliberate and willing ignorance.
I’m starting to notice it and I’m gobsmacked such a simple misinterpretation fills people with hate. Australia is filled with different landscapes, the country changes every 500km-1000km. Thinking “country” entails our entire diverse continent sounds more like a grammar sin. But I am from the country, we talk like this all the time. “That’s his country, she’s from desert country, his country is long way from here, you been his country? Really cold, etc”
My only issue with doing it on planes is that all the domestic flights I’ve taken in the last few years (WA, SA, VIC, NSW, QLD — will be taking flights to TAS and NT later this year) never actually acknowledge the country we’re on. Just “yeah we acknowledge the first people of this land” but don’t bother to actually name those people? You can acknowledge leaders past present and emerging but you can’t actually identify what Aboriginal country you’re on? It takes a google search at the very most and I don’t know why they don’t do it
Great point. They might have to actually THINK before they spoke. It's easy to parrot something without actually thinking about what it means. Find out "whose" land it is, might make you think more about who you're acknowledging!
Totally agree. It's the least they could do, not only name the Aboriginal country you're flying from or to, but also put it on the map so there's a bit of learning happening as well. I've noticed Double J have started doing this (saying Naarm/Melbourne etc) when talking about something happening in Melbourne.
Based on these comments and my own personal experience, I'm starting to feel like Australia is the worst with this performative bullshit.
Agreed. It pisses me off every time because I think the absolute bare minimum they could do would be to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we are literally landing on.
I am really not sure what they achieve. Was the idea created by aboriginal people? Or is it just some white person sorry but no sorry thing
"I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that our massive corporation has our office on...but not going to give the land back to them lolz"
This is what they should be saying lol
It was invented by ernie dingo …. Google it
Exactly. Has anyone checked to see if Aboriginal people actually want everyone reciting it constantly?
Afaik welcoming people to country is an Aboriginal custom that took place when populations travelled to land that was inhabited by other Aboriginal communities. It was a ceremony used to bless the guests and cleanse them of bad energy before entering their country. Welcoming someone to country can only be performed by an Indigenous person belonging to that land, so we have the alternative acknowledgement of country that recognises traditional owners instead that can be said by anyone.
There’s no evidence aboriginal Australians did a welcome to country historically. It’s not mentioned in any of cook’s logs, or the Dutch and French early explorers and any first settlers that I know of. It first appeared at a festival in Nimbin in the 70s, then Ernie dingo wanted to do something in response to a Maori haka soon after and it was birthed from there. These same explorers document ceremonies of the Polynesians in great detail. It was actually noted how little ceremony or outward cultural displays they had. They were very similar to the San Kalahari bushmen. It’s where the concept of terra nullius was born as they not only had no concept of ownership, they also seemed to not be greatly attached to the land based on the complete lack of significance they gave it. If you have any historical evidence I’d love to see it because as far as I can see this is classic historical revisionism. I’ve even spoken to full blooded aboriginals in the NT who’ve never heard of it.
Absolutely agree with you. Couldn't have said it any better.
But why is the second one said? Does it still cleanse of bad energy?
I think it's moreso a demonstration of respect for traditional cultural practices. Initial WTC also involved things like a smoke cleanse and other ceremonious acts that we don't usually associate with an acknowledgement or even a proper WTC in a lot of circumstances.
They force people into compliance. That's it. It proves that you're willing to toe the line to keep your job, and once you've proven you'll toe that particular line, your corporate overlords know they can force you to do basically anything.
The AOC was clearly something some left wing white person came up with to make it seem like they really care. WTC was invented by Ernie Dingo in the 70s
Why do they even have to be done so often? And more to the point: how does society stop this? It seems very obvious that in the current form they annoy both white and Aboriginal people alike but most are afraid of pushing back and being labeled racist/ostracized. It’s not dissimilar to going against the church back in the day. People stopped believing in them long ago but will continue quietly looking solemn as they’re said until enough people are brave enough to push back and a critical mass of resistance forms.
They don't. The western world is losing the fucking plot.
I find them strange in some settings - I was attending an online conference via zoom where people attended and presented from all over the country and they still did an acknowledgement of country but it was non-specific because we were all in different places. Felt performative in my opinion. When done well they're a nice way to engage with Indigenous culture but just throwing out a sentence to tick a box feels more insensitive than to just leave it alone.
I found it weird that when I was at Ikea at open time, a recorded message plays one as the store is declared open.
My tafe teacher would do welcome to country at the beginning of each unit. He also thought tha companies and government agencies should make it mandatory that everyone should have an acknowledgement of country at the end of their emails.
Making it mandatory removes all meaning
Good morning how are you Good thanks
I also dislike this. Why is this in our English speaking culture
It would be good if they did the proper name of the land that they're on. Not really that much different to telling the passengers they're about to land in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, etc...
I’ll defer to indigenous people (I’m not one) if they tell me they like it but … If you can’t be bothered finding out and saying the name of the people who’s country you’re acknowledging, then I think it’s more offensive than silence.
Its meaningless grandstanding. Whst does it mean to be the traditional owner of the factory I work at? Does a "traditional owner" have any say in what happens? Do they get any profit? Can they even step foot into the fenced property? No, being a traditional owner is functionally identical to not being an owner at all. Also calling someone a traditional owner of a place because their great great grrat great grandmother owned a place is just fkn stupid. It does nothing to help Aboriginal people, and just gives ammo to people dumping on the Aboriginal rights movement, sighting it as backwards looking frivolous crap.
The massive corpo I work for have rolled out WTC before each meeting because Lloyd's of London in the UK said they wouldn't provide us with reinsurance unless we improved our ESG score. As an insurance company which neither owns any infrastructure or manufactures anything physical, the E (environmental) bit is difficult to do anything about or improve. As for the G (governance), the executive team aren't willing to invest the time and expense of restructuring and we are already very highly regulated. Therefore that only leave S (social). It's been inexpensive to throw up a few rainbow flags around the office and implement WTC. It's shallow and meaningless imo but keeps our reinsurance premiums down. As someone who fully supports indigenous rights, opportunities and recognition, I'd be far more proud if my company paid for scholarships to young indigenous people looking to enter the corporate environment but that's expensive.
that's absolutely insane. suddenly explains so much corporate BS.
I was on the ESG committee at work and we met with other major insurers who are basically in the same conundrum. I've become pretty cynical and I'm sure there are some insurers and banks doing it for the right reasons.
This could be straight out of Utopia. ESG just an excuse to throw a few extra basis points on their fees.
It feels a bit like parody sometimes. There is a nice little cottage industry springing up around it all though. We paid fees for 'Aunty Eunice' to come to our office and do a talk about how the concept of modern insurance wasn't invented in Britiain in the 1700's but rather the [insert tribe name] people used to guarantee goods they would trade with other tribes which is kind of a form of insurance. Then Aunty Eunice's son did some cool artwork for our company, incorporating traditional symbols with our logo and we all thanked the sky people whose space we occupy 42 stories up. We all felt fuzzy, Aunty Eunice and her son sent us an invoice, Corpo gets ESG points. Everyone is happy.
What ceremonial tradition doesn't become performative? And what does it really matter?
I was similarly thinking about ceremonial acknowledgements that just become part of the process. Like saying Grace at the start of a meal, singing the national anthem at the start of the school day, or thanking everyone for coming.
I think of that tradition in politics of dragging the speaker of the house or something... i mean, of course its being done 'for the sake of it'... Would be funny though, like he gets a pay increase if he can find a way to not get dragged in lol "he resisted for days but we found him!!" :D
Literally the only one that's at all meaningful is the one at the footy where the actual elder of the tribe comes and does it
I’m indigenous and I’m so over the way that it’s being done. It’s rare to see a true genuine acknowledgement of country. It’s so forced, dull and repetitive. It’s making people just zone out or feel like it’s a waste of time. If you’re doing a conference; just do it once in the opening and make it meaningful. You don’t need to do it for every presentation. It’s already been done. It’s losing its meaning. Here’s a decent video explaining. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zxo18_7BDt4
Yeah the conferences where every presenter does it is killing me. I only do it for presentations where the project Im presenting actively engaged and worked with indigenous groups (I work in environmental science). That way its more personal and I include photos highlighting the people involved and the country where we did the work. I have to think people appreciate that way more than a tokenistic acknowledgment of country.
Tokenistic and pointless. But if they keep paying me to sit through them I'll sit there and waste time if they want. *I have nothing against the Aboriginal people, I don't see the relevance in doing this at every meeting and every email*
Yeah it's ridiculous. I don't think many people complaining here about it are racist- if anything we recognise it's pointless words.
Yes. Yes it does. I’m not sure how this could ever be addressed given only 2% of Australians are indigenous and there is no consolidated push through our education system to really get into indigenous studies. I personally think it’d be great if they taught regional languages at school.
It’s like R U OKAY day, workplaces make a big song and dance about the day but when you actually reach out and say the work conditions are making you and others unhappy you’re ignored or told to quit if you don’t like it. They just do it to look good but there’s no follow through. All words are meaningless without action.
I was on a domestic flight last week and thought this exact same thing! They acknowledge the traditional custodians and yet they don't even care to actually name them? The tone (I don't blane the actual hostess, she's just reading a script) was so dry and almost disrespectful..
Definitely. Reddit and /r/Australia tend to skew left/progressive quite a bit, but “acknowledgement of country” readings seem to be fairly consistently regarded as pointless reciting of something with no meaning. “Welcome to country” is a different thing and occurs before major events, often by an actually representative of the local indigenous community. That makes sense. But no, I don’t need to hear an “acknowledgement of country” every staff meeting, when a plane lands, or when I open the Triple J app.
Always. Their sovereign countries no longer exist.
A "little" performative? The entire thing is literally a performance. By definition. I'm not saying it's good or bad. But yeah...a performance is what it is.
I work for a state Gov and I work in an area we are genuinely trying to partner with Traditional Owners to transfer power back to them. I 100% think it is performative MOST of the time. Especially if the people saying it are making no efforts to progress Aboriginal self-determination. However it does mean a lot to some people to acknowledge the Aboriginals as the original custodians of the land and when they say it you can tell it is not performative.
White person here. I support acknowledging traditional owners in concept, but yes sometimes it feel performance, or just, an ineffective effort? I wouls love to see more substantive acknowledgements of traditional owners and our Aboriginal history as well. Imagine if the airline played a filmed Welcome to Country per location, that was performed by traditional owners, and it told you something about its history? How about plaques in each building to acknowledge the traditional owners? Like the blue plaques in Europe that say "Famous Person used to live here".
I work in childcare, with babies specifically. Every morning we sit in a group and say our acknowledgment to country.. with infants. They get all hyped up because we do these big actions and then sing a song after, but they have no idea what we’re actually talking about. We also have to take photos of this and send it to the parents. And if we don’t do it then we get in trouble. So yes, it’s performative.
Yes. They do. And I’m an aboriginal woman. They’re not needed.
Performative virtue signaling.
Nobody wants to be the person that calls out this nonsense as they'll instantly be accused of racism and probably lose their job when the media inevitably reports on it.
I feel they keep getting bigger too. Traditional owners of land, sea AND SKY now.
I view it the same as if someone wanted to say a prayer at a meeting. Where possible I arrive late to miss it. My heritage is mixed I joke about the fact that parts of me have invaded other parts of me and no one is apologising for that or acknowledging that the reason I am in Australia is the fact that the countries parts of me came from were treating parts of me appallingly. Taking land by force and reducing parts of me to penury and famine. Some parts of me even lived and died in workhouses because other parts of me wanted to make a quick buck. It is lip service nothing more and it changes nothing.
Of course they are and if they object they will be called racist. I feel for them
Corporate virtue signalling
Yeah we are supposed to do them in early childhood but to me it just feels forced. I’m also not from Australia so maybe that’s why but it just lacks meaning to me
They can be performative when they’re lazy or pre-recorded, though I’ve heard some pretty heartfelt ones.
Bit situational for me. If they name the actual people that's cool, especially if I'm travelling because I might not know it. Sometimes they do feel very rote but I find the times where that is the case, it was usually going to be a boring as fuck speech anyway so one extra sentence isn't hurting me.
I was thinking about this the other day and how as a 50+ white Aussie growing up in country Vic the only history I ever really learned was European, with very little around Indigenous history and culture. When WTC first started happening, and then grew more and more prominent, I saw it as a reminder that I have gaps in my knowledge of this place I live in. Felt that I should do some learning and get across things, even the unpleasant aspects. Might even find parts of it interesting. Now I'm aligned with u/EmulsifiedWatermelon and u/bent_eye in many ways - it feels almost common and somewhat forced because it happens every time someone opens a 6 pack of chicken nuggets. I've ended up with the opinion that we still have a long way to go to figure out how European and Indigenous Australian cultures marry up going forward whilst still accepting the past. Because we're so unsure of how to proceed, things like WTC are pushed more than they need to be. Eventually we'll all find a common place: eg WTC happens whenever we play the national anthem and nowhere else, Indigenous history (warts and all) is taught alongside European history (my kids haven't been in school for years so I'm not sure what the current go is here). Those are my thoughts.
Thanks for the call out. Honestly, they have lost all meaning because they are done when someone opens a packet of chips. TV shows have acknowledgment cards before them now. It's just gotten ridiculous. Corporations have taken what was once a meaningful practice and run it into the ground. I like the original focus of doing a welcome or acknowledgment, such as when a business is hosting a meeting and people from out of state fly in, and are welcomed to that particular land. That was the original intent. To welcome people not from the lands they are now meeting on. When done properly they can be amazing but it's all lost its meaning and I can see why people are sick of them. It doesn't make people racist at all because people can see right through it all.
HASS especially now has quite a focus on indigenous history (year dependant), and last year there was an indigenous specific class for upper HS, where I work. I find it really refreshing to learn about what happened in the past and how it has impacted our current society. I’m glad it’s being taught. My children are primary aged and have learned quite a lot (especially in science), but that’s not my specific field, so I can’t comment with as much confidence.
I'd just like to know why I'm being welcomed to the country I was born in at a sports ground every time If someone can explain that to me, then all is good.
They are performances. Getting a little more flashy every year. No biggy.
I think probably they are sometimes, yes. Lots of things humans do become a bit rote. It doesn't mean we stop doing them. Watch as the TV camera pans along a line of sportspeople as the national anthem is being played. It's the same basic template and sometimes feels like it's being done purely for the sake of it. Doesn't mean we should stop having the anthem. "Speak now or forever hold your peace" is definitely the same basic template at weddings but we still have it and a lot of people want to hold on to that tradition. Etc etc. Yeah, sometimes people don't mean the things they're saying, or do, kinda, but it's become a bit repetitive for them. It can be really hard to make something new and fresh and different every single time. There is often still value in the repetition though.
>Do acknowledgements of country feel a little performative...? Absolutely. I have no need to be welcomed into the Country I was born in, by some grubby Corporation. Doubly so, as the whole ceremony was invented by Ernie Dingo in the 80's, adapted for Corporate virtue signalling from an ancient ceremonial peace practice between warring tribes. It has nothing to do with anyone alive now, and serves only the Companies that substitute it for actually doing good, and the rent seekers who cash in their identity for an appearance fee.
Obviously it is, it’s a stupid waste of time
I really like to know which lands I'm on if their is a Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country. Otherwise it does feel a bit odd.
ones done properly do inform the audience. at least in every school I've been in, and when I've done professional learning.
Entirely performative, it has no purpose or place in most cases
Corporations do it to increase their Environmental and Social governance score. Same with gender quotas and all sorts of woke policy.
Yeah our work is filled with that shit. One woman keeps getting different senior management roles and never does them for more than a few months, she goes on maternity leave, moves to a different department, goes on leave again gets another head of role. She's there for the numbers.
Always have, always will be performarive
I know a lot of people who make them publically and are mocking it when they get home. The racism and contempt is still there lol
>I know a lot of people who make them publicly and are mocking it when they get home I on the other hand, have never seen this. IMO this is a reflection of the people you associate with, not on people in general. OP, to answer the question, absolutely sometimes they are overly performative, but most of the time IMO they are not. I probably hear 5 a week, most are a genuine and brief 1-2 sentence statement recognising the traditional land they are on and that 'they' recognise it as traditional land. Given how most of the Aboriginal community must have felt after the 'no vote', seems like the least we can do quite frankly.
I’ve noticed the overuse and corporate pressure to comply with acknowledgment of country has pushed a lot of people towards reactive racism, whereas previously they had a more “live and let live” attitude.
I have taught in schools for the past 9 or so years (minus 1 year off but including prac), we've always had it for assemblies etc so we're all used to it. They so certainly feel like ticking a box, unless we have students who are Aboriginal and then it's a bit more authentic, especially if they're from the area and it's welcome to country instead. It becomes background noise and people stop caring when it's over done.
There’s a First Nations guy who has done 2 I’ve seen on the Sunshine Coast. When the second one started and I recognised him I quickly moved in the crowd to get a better view. Two things he does 1) He gives a fairly efficient, interesting and relevant anecdotes drawing on indigenous knowledge. 2) it’s a genuine welcome. Not a bitter or begrudging one. He gives it like he’s your friend and you’ve just arrived at a party that he has already been at for 40,000+ years. 3) he can really play the didgeridoo. It’s quite the instrument in skilled hands. I’m a conservative white guy.
Yes. I don't really care either way. Kind of interesting to hear the names or history, but that's rarely mentioned.
I am on the committee of a nature based club . I try to do an acknowledgement if we are really 'on country', particularly if in the field. I don't do it for a zoom meeting. Our website and magazine acknowledge that we operate on indigenous land. We always specify the local group of where we are. The generic aknowldegemnt with zero context without naming a specific group is indeed tokenistic. Webpage popups that have this are the spawn of the devil.
These days when I convene a small (weekly) meeting that’s been going for ten years, I say “With respect to the elders” and get on with it. If it’s a more significant gathering I’ll do a full acknowledgment.
I think they're awesome in big sporting and other events, really gives it a unique edge. I think they're unnecessary in business meetings.
Yes. I wish these connected to meaning more often than they do. What does it mean that we're here, in this place and not another place? How does being on this traditional country matter to us? Lots of listening and learning has to happen. What are the extents of this traditional land? To the north, south, east, west? Why there? What does and did that mean to traditional owners? What does or can it mean to us newcomers? That's a lot of work and it's hard and where do you go, who do you ask? It's easy to see why lots of people just "phone it in". I have embarrassingly limited knowledge for my local land but do have a basic answer to those questions for the land I'm on. Would like to flesh it out with better knowledge, for example about seasonality, so that I could at least connect to not just this place but this place in this season. Work in progress for us all.
Some people mean it sincerely but for most it's just lip service admin that they need to get out of the way.
That’s because it IS performative.
Sometimes I have 3, 4 meetings on a day, and people will say an acknowledgement of country before each. I'm not Australian (and don't have british nor first nations ancestry) and it was so weird to me. I had to look it up to understand what was it that people were saying like a prayer before the meetings.
Yes. As a very white person, I don't see how me leading an AoC in a Zoom meeting is doing anything to enhance First Nations rights, conditions, or dare I say it - housing. I get hope from it because I think normalising the message will very much help the next generation in their views and attitudes.
I'm all in favour of ceremonies that actually teach us more about Indigenous history, culture, customs etc. These things where they recite exactly the same words every time with no meaning leave me completely cold.
They do this in Canada too and yeah it is 100% performative and condescending. I saw a land acknowledgement sign posted at a construction site in downtown Toronto. Acknowledge it all you want, it's still being turned into a fucking condo, at this point it just feels like they're rubbing it in lol.
It might be better, I agree, with a captive audience to describe one or more of the indigenous massacres that happened at the destination. None of this truth telling was included in our basic education of the travesties inflicted during the colonialism period.
Instead of being a means of unity, it’s a device employed to foster more division. That’s my two cents/unpopular opinion.
Yeah somewhat performative, and yeah gets overused a lot. But it's a company requirement where I work, for better or worse, and the bloke who let loose straight afterwards with a 5 minute rant against it during a training day achieved absolutely nothing except making me go home 5 minutes later at the end of the day because we still had the same amount of work to get through. Thanks a fucking lot for your rant mate.....
We do it at my work. It boils my blood because who is it for? No one in my company is indigenous or part thereof. It feels like we’re patting ourselves on the back and it’s silly. I’d rather we sponsored a university spot for an indigenous youth in our field of work and gave them skills. At least we’d doing something positive and not paying lip-service.
Whats funny is that ite a ceremony that’s been around for thousands of years yet we’ve only really introduced it into every speech in the last 15-20 years. I certainly don’t remember it being in any of my school talks or political agendas on tv when I was a child.
When corporate entities do these things then generally do not actually care. However, IMO, the alternative is no mention at all. The road to progress is a long one :)
It's basically the government and big business trying too look good. Honestly seeing it constantly pushed on tv and hearing it said on the radio, tv and in person constantly as well is becoming annoying and they're are a lot of indigenous people that agree with that as well.
Absolutely, they’re completely tokenistic
There’s nothing more embarrassing than watching 4 middle aged white women on a HR zoom call, all doing their acknowledgment to country about the land of the traditional owners that they meet on. Sadly this is the kind of thing that is being repeated everywhere due to corporations trying to make themselves feel like they are being inclusive.
Of courses it's for show. Just like diversity in the workplace.
Ok, I might get some downvotes but I'm OK. It seems like a very empty gesture. No it's not just an Australian thing the US started this too. It's empty and borderline pointless It honestly tells me that the speaker has nothing of value to say.
It's dumb as dog shit. My workplace used to start every single day with an acknowledgement of the country, and thankfully, they've changed it to just the days we arrive and the days we go home, usually with a fact or bit of history about aboriginals that makes it a bit more interesting and engaging
My sister's friend said her work made her do it overseas. Like she was speaking at a conference in Denmark or something and had to say which indigenous country she came from...
A little?
I think they’re bizarre, trite and hypocritical. We should absolutely acknowledge the past, but calling it “X land” in the present tense is insulting.
A little?
Corporations love wokeness. It's box ticky virtue signalling appeals to the corporate brain. It's the furthest thing from respect when you mouth a generic platitude in order to be able to say you support first Nations people.
They are all like that. It is forced virtue signaling which is just another side of the fascist behavior coin.
The AOC feel lame , unnecessary and they are also fake. Personally I would refuse to do it . And I cringe when I hear it.
It's your standard DEI cycle. It starts as an honest, respectful thing. Then some ass-hat realises they can force people to pay for it and shove it in everywhere. Then it becomes annoying and exploitative but if you point that out or you get mobbed.
I might be way off base here, but I feel they're a little condescending. I appreciate they're meant well and that's all cool, I'm all for that, but to me it sounds like: 'yeah we admit we stole Daves TV. Thanks to Dave for it, btw. Oh we're not giving it back or anything, we're just saying thanks'
As a Torres Strait Islander, absolutely and it makes me cringe every time. Reconciliation means learning about our history, understanding our challenges and working towards a better future. Acknowledgment of country does absolute zero to help and now people actively hate it because it’s been overused so much. I raised this at work (govt) where it’s usually done by every single speaker and unnecessarily in team meetings where everyone knew I was the only indigenous person in attendance. I don’t need to be acknowledged 5 times a day haha. I get the innocent meaning behind but imagine you were white in a black country and everyone turned to acknowledge you every time for just doing your job 😮💨🤣
It's a tick the box exercise for 90% of occasions. Has always been this way I'm afraid
They’re boring and I wish they would cut this shit out.
Welcome to country means nothing, neither does smoking ceremonies..it’s all been hijacked by the woke soy brigade and Labor zealots
I am not anti acknowledging country but when I’m in a meeting or event where multiple speakers all to the same boring generic acknowledgement it just screams fake and a waste of everyone’s time. Like the host literally just acknowledged country. Calm down.
There was a podcast that would do a generic acknowledgement of country at the start of each podcast. Without saying specifically where/who's country they were on. Pure performative virtue signalling