Photo: AFP / TREVOR COLLENS
Welcome to Country is a sacred ceremony practised by the world's oldest continuous cultures- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - dating back 65,000 - 70,000 years.
An Aboriginal academic says the ancient cultural protocol of Welcome to Country demands genuine understanding and respect and urges Australians to embrace it as a living expression of unceded sovereignty - not a culture war talking point.
In Aotearoa, the pōwhiri has long been the formal ritual of welcome. Once used by iwi Māori to assess whether newcomers were friend or foe, today it greets all manuhiri (visitors) onto a marae or place.
Every iwi applies its own tikanga and kawa to pōwhiri - from karanga, to whaikōrero. But at its heart it is about extending and receiving manaakitanga (hospitality) and acknowledging the sacred link between people and place.
Across the Tasman, Aboriginal peoples maintain a similar tikanga - the Welcome to Country.
Delivered by a local Elder whose whakapapa ties them to that land, it too provides spiritual protection and affirms custodial authority.
Yet, as recent Anzac Day events in Te Whenua Moemoea revealed, this protocol is increasingly debated and even turned into "political bait" for the 2025 election.
Curtin University senior research fellow Dr Cally Jetta told RNZ there remains "a lot of resistance and denial" in Australia, as too many would rather "forget that side of everything and move on" than confront the deep history and responsibilities that a Welcome to Country embodies.
Bunurong Elder Mark Brown delivers a welcome to country ceremony during the Anzac Day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance, to remember soldiers who have died in the line of duty, in Melbourne on 25 April 2025. Photo: MARTIN KEEP / AFP
What is a Welcome to Country?
According to Jetta a Welcome to Country is a way to honour ancient and continuing First Nations customs.
"It's about honouring the fact that you are just one link in a chain. That this land - and the people who have been on it, looking after it - go back generations. Through that welcome, you are offered spiritual and cultural protection. It's a beautiful thing."
She said that "Country" does not refer to the nation-state of Australia but rather the hundreds of distinct Nations - similar to Aotearoa where different iwi and rohe would have different customs - each with its own language, story and protocol.
"When people say, 'I don't wanna be welcomed to my own country,' we're not talking about the country of Australia," she said.
"Australia didn't exist as a concept, as a word, as a term, as a nation prior to 1901, and definitely not back in 1788.
"Every single [area] represents a different country, a different cultural group that has different history, different ancestors, different stories, different ways of working with that land and country to look after it."
Jetta said whether it was indigenous people or non-indigenous people, they were all welcomed if they're not from that particular place.
An Aboriginal flag held in Perth. Photo: AFP / Trevor Collens
Weaponising culture
Jetta believes the Welcome to Country has become "a political tool to weaponise and divide society to win political votes".
"Blackfellas here are just the poor scapegoats in the middle," she said.
"And any hate and resistance felt as a result of government initiatives. Don't go back on the government, they come back on Aboriginal people and communities themselves."
Although Labor won the 2025 federal election in a landslide, she said acute social crises were still being overshadowed by persistent anti-Indigenous rhetoric.
"Australia has massive drug issues, massive homelessness. People can't afford to get a house. And yet some political parties, their opening line, 'we're sick of being welcomed to our own country' just shows how hateful and petty politicians can be when they're chasing votes."
She believes Welcome to Country has been "misinterpreted and deliberately twisted".
"This isn't something that should be used as a political tool. This is something that should be treated with respect and dignity because it's 70,000 years old, far older than any concept of the nation of Australia."
Demonstrators march through Perth in June 2020, during a Black Lives Matter protest to express solidarity with US protesters and demand an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody. Photo: AFP/ Trevor Collens
Solidarity and the road ahead
Jetta hopes non-Indigenous Australians recognise that Welcome to Country is part of Australia's collective heritage, not an "optional extra".
"It's not just Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and heritage. It's Australian knowledge and heritage."
She said the outcome of the 2023 Voice referendum - a proposal to recognise its First Peoples in the constitution, which was overwhelmingly voted down - had been a major setback.
"We were hoping that we would see that change with the Voice referendum. But it didn't happen. It just means we keep working harder."
Looking forward, Jetta said change would require true allyship from non-indigenous allies.
"We need non-First Nations allies as the dominant majority to stand up and help. When people hear these messages from their own communities, that's when real change happens."
However, she believes the world is at a "turning point".
"While we've seen this rise of that hard extremist right-wing rhetoric. We've seen on the other side, the younger generations and those coming through that are just going, no, we don't accept that."
"It's in our DNA. If we were meant to have rolled over and given up, we would've disappeared by now,"
"We won't stop walking until our grandchildren no longer have to debate their right to be welcomed on their own lands."
