What is Welcome to Country?

Welcome Super Netball

Source: AAP Image/James Ross

Increasingly at the beginning of an event we see a formal ceremony performed by Aboriginal Traditional Custodians, called ‘Welcome to Country’. As we celebrate NAIDOC Week, Settlement Guide looks at what it means and how we can all acknowledge the Traditional Custodians with sincerity.


Welcome to Country ceremonies are only performed by Traditional Custodians.

They are the descendants of the Aboriginal people who cared for Australian land before colonisation.

What does the welcoming - which usually takes the form of a speech, dance or smoking ceremony - mean?



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