I recently sat through a Welcome to Country offered at an NT Parliament House library awards function.

 The ‘Welcome to Country’ which is seemingly compulsory, went on for at least 15 minutes with great attention to minute detail provided by a person who told us this was her fourth welcome to Country ceremony/presentation for the day.

The two hour program included individuals presenting awards who, each in turn, offered  their own personal recognition to the Aboriginal group who came before us.

 Interspersed through the events of the evening were references to and inferences about how detracting were those  who came to this part of the Northern Territory. No mention of anything positive or beneficial accruing to the Aboriginal predecessors of the region by people who came after.

At the end of the evening, I left feeling like an imposter, someone who was trespassing in a country to which he had no right  or entitlement. I felt shamed by the fact that I had been born in Australia.

But in leaving, I was glad that in my four decades of school leadership, I NEVER EVER engaged in any ‘welcome to country’ acknowledgements at my schools.

For mine, we were all ‘together as one’, and differentiation would have been anathema. I am, you are, we are ALL part of Australia, Australians together.