NRL powerhouse Melbourne Storm has decided to scale back the club’s ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremonies as debate continues to swirl about the controversial tradition.
The Storm has privately confirmed it will be ditching regular Welcome to Country ceremonies throughout the season, News Corp reports.
The club said ‘we’re really keen to let our actions (rather than words) reflect what we stand for as a club in the community’.
The ceremony has been dropped since late in the 2024 NRL season, but the club has indicated this is now an official call.
It will however continue with the ceremony during the NRL’s Indigenous round.
Welcome to Country ceremonies have been at the forefront of cultural debate in Australia more than a year on from the Voice referendum.
Some of the renewed attention is courtesy of its prominence before large sporting events, and particularly the Giants versus Lions semifinal in Sydney in September where Aboriginal Elder Brendan Kerin said they ‘weren’t to cater for white people’.
Melbourne Storm will scrap regular Welcome to Country ceremonies from now on
The prominent footy club will continue with the ceremony for the NRL’s Indigenous round
‘It’s a ceremony we’ve been doing for 250,000 years BC – and the BC stands for Before Cook,’ he told the crowd, referring to Captain James Cook’s arrival in Australia in 1770 ahead of European settlement.
Mr Kerin said the practice was not a welcome to Australia but that ‘within Australia we have many Aboriginal lands, and we refer to our lands as ”Country” so it’s always a welcome to the lands you’ve gathered on’.
‘Prior to colonisation, you could get in a lot of trouble for walking on someone else’s lands without being welcomed onto those lands,’ the Marrawarra and Barkindji man said.
Reaction to the Storm’s decision has been predictably lively online, with footy fans divided over the issue.
One fan posted to X: ‘Strong leadership decision and about time. It’s not a welcome, it’s a political accosting. No one welcomes someone into their home by ranting about their property rights.’
Another replied: ‘Good on the Storm. End the divisive ceremonies.’
A third posted: ‘Thank you Storm. Finally some common sense.’
Others were appalled by the move.
Brendan Kerin, a cultural educator with Sydney ‘s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, gave a blunt Welcome to Country at the AFL which he said was not for white people
The Storm say they are ‘really keen to let our actions (rather than words) reflect what we stand for as a club in the community’
‘Another reason not to renew my Storm membership,’ posted one X user.
Indigenous rapper Briggs posted: ‘See, the cost of living means cultural recognition is just not viable in this economy. There’s a price for cultural inclusion. Storm could do it if they wanted; if anyone knows how to work a salary cap – it’s them.’
While the concept of a Welcome to Country might indeed be ancient, the modern form that has permeated throughout public life in Australia was invented just a few decades ago by TV personality Ernie Dingo’s dance troupe.
The Great Outdoors presenter and his fellow dancers came up with the impromptu routine in 1976 after an awkward stand-off with Maori and Cook Islanders who refused to perform at Perth Arts Festival until they were ceremonially welcomed.
Richard Walley’s Middar Aboriginal Theatre group, including a young Ernie Dingo, created the ritual so the show could go on after consulting local Nyoongar Elders.
On the 40th anniversary of the moment in 2016, Walley told Australian Geographic he was ‘surprised’ but ‘asked the good spirits of my ancestors and the good spirits of the ancestors of the land to watch over us and keep our guests safe while they’re in our Country’.
‘Then I talked to the spirits of their ancestors, saying that we’re looking after them here and we will send them back to their Country.’
The musician, dancer and writer invoked the blessing in the local language, sang a Nyoongar song celebrating their lands and the troupe did a ceremonial dance, all of which was a huge success and struck a chord in the Indigenous community.
Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies have been a hot topic for councils around the country
Welcome to Country ceremonies have become a regular feature of everyday life in Australia
Three years earlier, the organisers of the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, NSW, obtained permission from the traditional owners of the land, and Indigenous singer Dicke Donelly performed a Welcome to Country.
However, it was Walley’s version that truly stood out and received the most attention.
It was then adopted by the Northern Territory Tourism Board, then the Australian Tourism Commission and earned a global platform when it was included in the Miss Universe beauty pageant held in Perth in 1979.
‘That was sort of the catalyst, those years, that made the public aware of cultural protocol,’ Walley said.
Since then it has been used to greet British Royalty, open the 2000 Olympics, kick off sporting events and for the opening of Australian Parliament since 2008.
Along with it the Acknowledgement of Country – given by non-Indigenous people or organisations to recognise traditional owners – has also become widespread.
While the small ceremonies are intended to be friendly and inclusive, it has proved divisive, with some claiming it is a token gesture and a symbol of woke culture.
Indigenous Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said Australia was ‘saturated’ with it, which was ‘removing the sacredness of certain traditional culture and practices’.
‘It’s just become almost like a throwaway line. We don’t want to see all these symbolic gestures. We want to see real action,’ she said.
Triple M Radio producer Loren Barry recently took to social media to say she didn’t understand why pilates at her local gym had to begin with the ceremony.
‘I’m all for the Welcome to Country. But I think that, when you’ve got the same people in the classes everyday, you’ve been welcomed,’ she said.
