The troubling signs in the Welcome to Country debate
The strands of a country's history weave its identity. At times, this occurs seamlessly, the natural progression of social and economic forces. At other times, it is a painful exercise in the building of a nation.
White Australia's relationship with its First Nations Peoples is a profoundly deep wound that must be healed. The path of reconciling our colonial past and the treatment of Indigenous people – the dispossession, the discrimination, the massacres, the stolen children – has made important advances in the past few decades.
The past week has shown that we delude ourselves if we think we have attained a bipartisanship maturity on this path.
And while there will be points of difference in how this should be achieved, too often debate is imbued with racism and vitriol.
Last week a handful of neo-Nazis turned up at Anzac Day services. At the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, neo -Nazi Jacob Hersant led boos and heckling during Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown's Welcome to Country.
The ripple effect of this flowed into the opening of the Melbourne Storm match where, because of 'miscommunication', Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy was told her Welcome to Country ceremony was cancelled. It was then uncancelled. She, along with two other Indigenous groups, by then had had enough. The club has since apologised.
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As is the dismal record in this country on Indigenous affairs, the issue then veered into political point-scoring, opportunism, ignorance and a lack of cultural sensitivity.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton famously boycotted the apology to the Stolen Generation, a move he now says he regrets, and has sought to walk a narrow path on Indigenous matters.
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