winanga-y walaay-baa-ga acknowledgement to country
garri-na
When next you are asked to voice an Acknowledgement to Country, please consider basing it on this one. You are welcome to amend the country you are from, the country you are speaking on, the Aboriginal language used [with permission of course], your gender etc, as long as you mention that it is based on the acknowledgment from Hobajing Narrative Practice.
yaama gayrr ngaya djijidan
hello my name is jedison
ngaya yala-girr-maga winanga-y wiradjuri dhayn-galgaa ngaanngu walaaybaa-ga nhalay buu-dhaa gaa–gi-ga
i acknowledge the many wiradjuri people whose home this meeting is taking place on
wayamaa-galgaa ngaya winanga-y-la-nha, yanaa–wayi-y-la-ndaay, yanaa-y-la-ndaay, yanaa–mayaa-y-la-ndaay
i acknowledge the elders who lived long ago, who are living now and who are to come
Before we Acknowledge the Guardians of this land, I would to quickly talk about why we are here. There are two forms of ritual, one is a Welcome to Country and one is an Acknowledgement.
Traditionally, what we now term a Welcome to Country, was an opportunity for safe passage. As a Visitor, you waited on the border to be allowed in and Custodians of that land area took a gamble on trusting you to not harm the living breathing mass that was their homeland.
Today, the welcome is based on the same principle, you and I are being asked to demonstrate commitment to the Aboriginal people locally and the living breathing mass they call their homeland.
Now I include myself in this commitment because I am not a Gadigal Woman. I am a Yuwaalaraay Woman. I am an Aboriginal Woman but I am not from this land. My people come from an area to the east of what you would recognise as the Queensland & New South Wales Border. Around the areas of Goodooga and Walgett and Lightning Ridge.
The difference between Gadigal and Yuwaalaraay is not the same as the difference between Queenslander and 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 Gadigal Land. What I can do, and what anyone in this room can do, is acknowledge that we are on Gadigal Land.
Now, whether we are acknowledging or welcoming, it doesn’t give value to your time or mine to present a token gesture. So as a member of the Australian Aboriginal people, I ask that you extend some of your time and get to know this land. You could look up it’s history, Jimmy Cook landed near hear, there’s a few stories around that one. You could listen to Gadigal Music, Read the Koorie Mail or the National Indigenous Times, there are many sources of Aboriginal content, and all I’m asking is that for a moment, you look at this land through another window …
Now for the acknowledgement
Yaama Maliyaa. Yinaa Yuwaalaraay Ngaya
Hello friends. I am a Yuwaalaraay Woman. I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eura Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet today. I pay my
respects to Elders, past, present and emerging and recognise their continuing connection and contribution to this land and waters.
Gaba Nginda Yaalu. Thankyou and see you soon
explore the site or contact the practice directly for more information.