26/04/2026
It grieves me that on a weekend such as this, many still need to learn what veterans were fighting for- the right and freedom to express cultural continuity, faith, spirituality, and self-determination…
Most people arguing about Welcome to Country don’t actually know what it is.
They just know how it makes them feel.
A Welcome to Country isn’t some new political thing. It didn’t start a few years ago. It comes from thousands of years of culture, long before Australia was even a country.
Back then, you didn’t just walk onto another group’s land. Boundaries mattered. If you crossed into someone else’s Country, you waited. You were invited in. You were welcomed, given safe passage, and expected to respect that land while you were there.
That’s what this is basen on.
Read carefully this next bit..
“Country” doesn’t mean Australia. It means that specific place. That land. That mob. Every part of Australia sits on someone’s Country, with its own history, stories and rules.
So no one is “welcoming you to your own country.” They’re acknowledging that you’re on theirs.
Not in a way that takes anything from you. Just in a way that shows respect.
It’s also why only certain people do it. A proper Welcome to Country is done by Traditional Owners or people given permission by them. It’s their cultural role. Not something random people just make up on the spot.
And it’s not always a speech either. It can be music. Dance. Smoke ceremony. Different places, different traditions.
Over time, it’s been adapted into modern events. Same idea, just a different setting.
That’s really it.
It’s not about guilt.
It’s not about dividing people.
It’s not about saying you don’t belong.
It’s a continuation of one of the oldest living cultures on earth, offering a moment of respect at the start of something.
You don’t have to love it.
But it probably helps to at least understand what it actually is before deciding what it means.
What do you reckon, is most of the anger just misunderstanding?
