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A land acknowledgement (or territorial acknowledgement) is a formal statement that acknowledges the Indigenous peoples of the land. It may be in written form, or be spoken at the beginning of public events. The custom of land acknowledgement is present in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and more recently in the United States. [1]
The Victorian Government supports Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country. [33] Welcomes to Country have attracted criticism from conservative politicians, historians and commentators, some of whom suggest that such ceremonies are a form of tokenism and do not reflect traditional Aboriginal
The term "on Country", or "on [a specific people] country" is often used. [6] Connection to country, "the most fundamental pillar of Indigenous identity", is a difficult concept for non-Indigenous Australians to understand, and disconnection from country has been shown to have an impact on Indigenous peoples' health and well-being. [7]
Drawing on this important relationship with Country, many First Nations Australians — including Aboriginal Australians across the continent and Torres Strait Islanders alike [13] [34] — identify a sense of responsibility or obligation to care for Country as a central tenet of traditional custodianship.
It asserts that Aboriginal peoples were the first on the continent now known as Australia, occupying and caring for the land for more than 65,000 years, [4] and that sovereignty of Country has never been ceded. [1] It is sometimes shortened to "Always was, always will be." [5]
Today, Indigenous sovereignty generally relates to "inherent rights deriving from spiritual and historical connections to land". [1] Indigenous studies academic Aileen Moreton-Robinson has written that the first owners of the land were ancestral beings of Aboriginal peoples, and "since spiritual belief is completely integrated into human daily activity, the powers that guide and direct the ...
acknowledgement of the significance of Aboriginal peoples moving back to traditional country; a clear distinction between homelands and settlements, missions or reserves; an acknowledgement of the traditional connection to the land and the ancestral spirits; and; a description of the permanency of homelands as traditional home territory.
The establishment of the council was an acknowledgement of past policies which had done harm to Aboriginal peoples, [7] and its purpose was to guide the process of reconciliation in the nation over the coming decade, which would end with the celebration of centenary since the Federation of Australia. [10]