acknowledgements to country are not your obligations, they are mine

in the footer of every page of this website is the statement .. as Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari, I recognise that I (jedison wells) may be on another community’s land and announce my presence, voice my respect to them, their Ancestors, their future leaders and their lands, skies and seas. It is my way of fulfilling my obligation to other Aboriginal Australians, the best I can in this modern world. I am saying I am here, is that ok

people in the past have expressed their frustrations at my voicing these words prior to starting group services, and I am surprised everytime. I’m surprised because many of those same people would grant me the respect to carry out my ritual if I was in prayer or from another country or playing in the Allblacks. I’m surprised because I wonder why they are so caught up in an obligation that is mine and not theirs. I learnt that traditionally Visitors announced themselves before coming onto country so that the Custodians could decide if they would take a gamble on trusting these newbies to not harm the living breathing mass that was their homeland. Today, though modern technology has limited my physical presence on other lands, I continue to demonstrate my commitment to traditional owners and the living breathing mass they call their homeland

i have also been questioned as to why I am bothering with such a declaration, if i am the only Indigenous Australian in the room. Well, that’s because my words are not directed toward individuals, they are for community, for Ancestors past and for Ancestors that are to come. My declaration is to my world (and P.S. my Ancestors ensure that I am never the only Indigenous person in a room)

some people have demanded “verification” of the ritua. They accuse me (yes me, apparently i’m the spokesperson for the entire Aboriginal population of the continent) of making up the terms “Welcome to Country” and “Acknowledgement to Country”. Well of course they’re made up, they’re English words. How would English speaking Australians, know what our cultural obligations are, if we didn’t explain them in English. If I just started speaking Yuwaalaraay or Muruwuri at the start of a group session, how would people know what im doing

the most common complaint though is that because people do their obligations differently, then it must be made, that its significance is reduced somehow. Again, I am surprised because the methods and content in which individuals choose to express their culture, faith, beliefs etc is directly influenced by the life they have led. There is no one way to pray, to mourn, to come-of-age, there is a commonality but there is also celebrated difference. I am a Yuwaalaraay, Muruwari and Scot Australian. My people come from areas to the east of what is recognised as the Queensland and New South Wales Border, near Goodooga and Walgett and Lightning Ridge. I am also influenced by the immigration of my mother and her family from Bellshill, Scotland. Of course, I’m going to do it differently