What Welcome to Country really means

For decades, modern-day Welcome to Country ceremonies have been an established ritual in Australia, performed by Indigenous elders, far and wide.

But on Anzac Day last Friday, during the hush of the dawn service remembering war veterans, Bunurong and Gunditjmara elder Mark Brown was booed, and jeered at, while performing the ceremony in Melbourne. 

And then that night, a planned Welcome to Country ceremony was ditched at a high-profile sporting event.

Today, federal politics reporter Natassia Crysanthos, on how - and why - the ritual has become weaponised. And Kamilaroi elder Uncle Len Waters, on what all Australians should be asking themselves now.

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