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. I have included this statement to continue the knowledge and obligation and respect of my people, regardless of who happens to be the majority population at any one particular time
i have experienced people voicing their frustrations during my group introductions because they don't want to hear an acknowledgement and i'm surprised everytime. I wonder if i were of particular faiths, that they would interrupt my prayer or if i was of another country, they would not grant me the respect to carry out my ritual. I wonder why they are so caught up in an obligation that is mine and not theirs
i have also been asked why, if i am the only Indigenous person in the room, am i bothering, isn't the message then a waste. I remind them that my people, my culture, my thinking, my way of life has always included Ancestors and those to come. I am never the only Indigenous person in a room
i agree with them when they say that the words "Welcome to Country" and "Acknowledgement to Country" are made up and/or modern. Of course they are, they are English words. How could we the minority, share with the majority of English speaking Australians, what our obligations are, in our own languages. And yes an "Acknowledgement to Country" wasn't around 200 years ago, because neither were non Indigenous peoples. Acknowledgement to Country is given by people respectful of our obligations as the traditional owners of the land they speak on. Why would we want to stop that?
traditionally, what is now an Acknowledgement to Country was an opportunity for safe passage. Visitors announced themselves so that Custodians could decide if they would take a gamble on trusting them not to harm the living breathing mass that was their homeland. Today, the principle is the same, we are being asked to demonstrate commitment to the traditional owners and the living breathing mass they call their homeland. I include myself in that commitment because I am not yet an Elder and do not have permission to Welcome you to my country, but still have the obligation to announce myself on someone elses country
I am a Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari Woman. 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.The difference between Yuwaalaraay and Muruwari and all other Indigenous countries on this continent is not the same as the difference between say a Queenslander and a Tasmanian, it is more like the difference between French and German. We share a continent but our language, our culture, our way of life is different. Just as a French Woman could not welcome you to Germany, I cannot welcome you to a land that is not mine. What I can do, and what anyone can do regardless of culture is acknowledge that we are here and we will be respectful of what is asked of us. After all, isn't that what we do at an airport?
I am a Yuwalaraay and Muruwari Australian and recognise that I may be speaking on another community's land. I announce my presence, voice my respect to them, their Ancestors, their future leaders and their lands, skies and seas.