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The Welcome to Country has been a long tradition among Aboriginal Australian groups to welcome peoples from other areas. [ citation needed ] Today it serves also as a symbol which signifies the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' presence in Australia before colonisation and an end to their past exclusion from ...
According to the National Museum of the American Indian, it is a traditional practice that dates back centuries in many Indigenous cultures. [2] [dubious – discuss] The modern practice of land acknowledgements began in Australia in the late 1970s, taking the form of the Welcome to Country ceremony, and was at first primarily associated with Indigenous political movements and the arts.
A welcome to country is a ritual now performed at many events held in Australia, intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to a particular Aboriginal group. The welcome must be performed by a recognised elder of the group. The welcome ceremony is sometimes accompanied by a smoking ceremony, music or dance.
Drawing on this important relationship with Country, many First Nations Australians — including Aboriginal Australians across the continent and Torres Strait Islanders alike [13] [34] — identify a sense of responsibility or obligation to care for Country as a central tenet of traditional custodianship.
The term "on Country", or "on [a specific people] country" is often used. [6] Connection to country, "the most fundamental pillar of Indigenous identity", is a difficult concept for non-Indigenous Australians to understand, and disconnection from country has been shown to have an impact on Indigenous peoples' health and well-being. [7]
Eve Fesl, a Gabi-Gabi woman, wrote in the Aboriginal Law Bulletin in 1986: "The word aborigine' refers to an indigenous person of any country. If it is to be used to refer to us as a specific group of people, it should be spelt with a capital 'A', i.e., 'Aborigine'". [21]
In the 2021 census, people who self-identified on the census form as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin totalled 812,728 out of a total of 25,422,788 Australians, equating to 3.2% of Australia's population [51] and an increase of 163,557 people, or 25.2%, since the previous census in 2016.
This meaning is now regarded to be part of Australian English, as it has become familiar to non-Indigenous Australians, for example in Welcome to Country ceremonies and the term connection to country, signifying the deep attachment to, and obligation to care for, the traditional lands of their group. [19] [18] [16]