Indigenous welcoming ceremonies: fake or authentic?
Welcome to country and acknowledgement of country ceremonies are accepted by many as a means of reconciling Australian Aboriginal and European cultures by acknowledging the around 60,000 years of indigenous occupation of the land, however over recent years the validity of the ceremonies ave been called into question.
‘It’s all made-up.”
He was not trying to be snarky, he was trying to assert that the ceremony is a recent invention. “Add a didgeridoo performance or traditional dancing and you have a cliche of Aboriginal culture, a pantomime.”
The man was talking about the smoking ceremony performed by Australian Aboriginal organisations as part of a ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremony to open events.
The smoking and the Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies have been adopted as a means of Aboriginal people welcoming others to their traditional homelands and for people other than Aboriginal to recognise prior occupation of the land.
Backstory
The Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies are a part of reconciling differences between European Australians and Australia’s indigenous inhabitants. They acknowledge the occupation of the land by Aboriginal people for at least 60,000 years.
Who can perform the ceremonies?
Performance of the Welcome to Country ceremony is authorised by an Aboriginal Land Council or other official Aboriginal organisation that represents traditional custodians of the land where an event is taking place. That is, they can trace their ancestry to the indigenous people whose land it was. The ceremony is intended to welcome visitors to the land and offer them safe passage.
Anyone, indigenous or non-indigenous, can do an Acknowledgement of Country. It simply recognises the inhabitation of the land prior to the coming of Europeans. There is no specific wording.
There are variants to the Welcome ceremony. In its basic form it is a short speech. A smoking ceremony and dancing can be provided as add-ons.
What does the Welcome to Country cost?
Costs are variable. The inclusion of a smoking ceremony and dancing adds to the basic cost. A search reveals that:
- a basic Welcome to Country costs between $300 to $750
- a smoking ceremony adds between $700 and $1500 to the basic cost
- a traditional dance or a didgeridoo performance can increase the cost by around $300.
Be aware that these costs vary and might not represent current costs.
Are Aboriginal smoking ceremonies authentic?
Stimulated by the comment I mentioned at the start of this story, I looked for evidence that the smoking ceremony is authentic. Or, is what the person I spoke with said it was? A recent invention? A cliche of the culture?
Wikipedia confirms that the smoking ceremony does have historic precedent in Aboriginal culture. In other words, it is authentic.
“Smoking ceremony is an ancient and contemporary custom among some Aboriginal Australians that involves smouldering native plants to produce smoke. This herbal smoke is believed to have both spiritual and physical cleansing properties, as well as the ability to ward off bad spirits. In traditional spiritual culture smoking ceremonies have been performed following either childbirth or initiation rites involving circumcision. In contemporary culture, elements of smoking ceremonies have been incorporated into Welcome to Country performances and other spiritual events held for the general public.”
North American Indian cultures also made use of smoking ceremonies, usually using a local herb such as sage. In recent times the New Age movement adopted its own versions of the smoking ceremony, however this raises the question of whether the adoption of a practice embedded in the traditions of a culture has authenticity when used in rituals outside that culture. It also demonstrates how New Age is a derivative movement drawing on a range of cultural practices harvested from Eastern spiritual practice, practices like shamanism and from pop psychology. The culture has declined in participation in recent times and continues more or less as a remnant.
There is an ecological question around the use of smoking ceremonies by the New Age or hippie subcultures in America. Harvesting by these subcultures as well as by commercial interest has denuded areas of the herbs used in the ceremony, including taking entire plants to sell as ‘smudge sticks’. When done by commercial interests this appropriates an element of indigenous culture merely to make money from gullible buyers.
Between the lines
Australians have become used to the Welcome or Acknowledgment ceremonies at official events. Their supporters see them as important in reconciling the conflicting histories of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Not all Australians are happy with the ceremonies, however.
Objections to both the Welcome and Acknowledgement ceremonies ae many and include:
- the Welcome to Country is a modern invention rather than an ancient tradition and is therefore inauthentic; it is alleged that it is a recent invention through which Aboriginal organisations make money
- charging up to $700 per appearance turns the Welcome ceremony into a business transaction
- the high cost erodes goodwill
- Acknowledgement of Country is a formality that is hurried through at the start of events and its presentation can lack conviction
- there are concerns about the authenticity of the practice, especially when performed by non-indigenous people or in contexts where it is perfunctory
- the Acknowledgement at events, before meetings, on websites and in emails has become overused and suffers from overuse syndrome by which things lose their earlier significance and meaning
- the ceremonies make non-indigenous Australians feel unwelcome in the country of their birth; they can feel like unwelcome strangers in their land
- smoking ceremonies can have spiritual elements that may conflict with personal religious beliefs; some Christian schools instead allow students to observe but not participate; some Aboriginal Christians are reported to not to participate in smoking ceremonies because of their religious beliefs
- the purpose of smoking ceremonies can be vague and lead to skepticism about their effectiveness
- some argue that the Welcome to Country practice is divisive of Australian society; the same charge was made of the referendum for Aboriginal Voice to Parliament in 2023
- the ceremonies are an imposition of indigenous culture on non-indigenous Australians, leading to feelings of resentment
- the ceremonies have become a type of performative activism used by organisations to appear culturally sensitive without making substantive changes
- the Welcome to Country ceremony consumes too much time at the start of events and meetings and eats into the time available for the event
- the performances are tokenism and are merely virtue signalling.
Several local governments in Australia have considered abolishing Welcome to Country and smoking ceremonies because of some of the above points.
“It makes no sense to continue with an indigenous policy that only represents roughly 0.63 per cent of the 240,000 residents that reside in the Cumberland City Council Local Government area,” Cumberland City Councillor, Steve Christou, told NCA Newswire. He said the ceremonies do not represent the people of his electorate because of its small Indigenous population. Similar moves by local governments have been reported in Western Australia.
The National Indigenous Times reported that Shire of Harvey councillor, Craig Carbone, last year told The West Australian that: “I think everyone has had enough. It’s at every footy game, school event, or concert. There’s a time and place for these things.”
What does it mean?
The concerns and objections to the use of the Aboriginal smoking ceremony, the Welcome to Country and the Acknowledgement at events, meetings and other instances has seen their weaponisation in the culture wars, especially following the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum of October 2023.
Yet, the ceremonies are seen as meaningful by many, as a way of recognising prior occupation of the land and as an act of reconciliation for past and present-day injustices. They are a recognition of those things but they are no guarantee that the organisations or individuals making them will go on to do anything positive to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. This is what those saying that the ceremonies are performative activism and virtue signalling are talking about. I think there is truth in the allegation that reciting an Acknowledgment at perfunctory official events and meetings will diminish its intent and meaning for many people?—?that it is just something to get out of the way before the meeting starts.
What will be the future of the ceremonies? My guess? They will continue but may become further politicised when indigenous issues arise. While there appears to be no concerted effort to end their use at local government meetings and events, I think it likely that some councils will drop them, at least from perfunctory meetings and events if not from all.
The greater risk lies in some on the rightwing side of Australian politics campaigning against the ceremonies to leverage their agenda. We saw this during the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum when the right created fear in the Australian community over issues that would not have come about had the referendum succeeded. Creating a moral panic is a proven way to stop something and is usually based on disinformation. Our politicians are adept at it.