Hasbeen, how do you know that the meaning 'was lost 100 years ago', and what makes you believe this to be so?

As for the similarities of polynesian ceremonial garb, how can you be sure that there were no influences between polynesian and Aboriginal peoples prior to British colonisation?

I am genuinely interested in your answers, but please do not quote the distorted history of primary school days many years ago.

I was also wondering if you can explain the weird rituals relating to the opening of parliament - like that fella with the rod thingy banging on the door - or why the judges wear those odd dresses and strange headgear

runner,

Love your idea.

I think 'indigineous' people should perform the 'thanks for coming' ceremony at important occasions like visiting a doctor/hospital/dentist, receiving preferential job treatment etc. It would just show some respect to the rest of us who have to make our own way in life - you know the ones who work our entire lives, pay off a mortgage, make copayments at the doctor, pay full price for prescriptions etc. It's all about respect.

Thank you Air for allowing me to breathe you.
Thank you Water for flowing in my body.
Thank you Earth that carry my weight.
Thank you Fire for keeping my body warm.
Thank you my feet that walked me here.
Thank you my eyes that showed me the way here.
Thank you my hands that carry the draft of this speech.
Thank you my heart that keeps pumping my blood.
Thank you my tongue through which I can make this speech.
Thank you my teeth that help me pronounce my words correctly.
Thank you my bladder for holding on while I speak.
Thank you my anus for holding on as well.
Thank you my face that allow me to smile at you.
Thank you my brain that phrased out this speech.
Thank you Building for enclosing us and stopping the wind and rain.
Thank you my wife that allowed me to come here today.
Thank you my kids which promised to behave well while I'm here.
Thank you my dentist who allowed me to be here without toothache.
Thank you Cow for producing the milk so I'm not distracted by hunger.
Thank you my clothes that allow me to present this speech respectfully.
Thank you Computer for helping me spell my speech correctly.
Thank you Printer for printing out the draft of my speech.

Thank you all,
my 350 words are over!

Dear runner and dane,

You both project a real bitterness and anger. Are your lives correspondingly that miserable? I hope not because that sort of bleakness can not be good for those around you.

Last Sunday I was asked to speak to a bus-load of Landcare people doing a tour of the catchment I have an interest in. Now I thought I had a pretty good handle on the area including its history. On the trip we also had along a local indigenous representative, something that would not have even been thought of 20 years ago but thankfully more common now. Sure some would have seen an element of tokenism but he was able to relate history that I had no idea occurred on my doorstep.

He spoke of an Aboriginal mission that was broken up when gold was discovered in the area. There is very little about it on the web but tales of other areas like Lake Condah can be found, another large mission where the aboriginal families were forcibly removed after the second world war to make way for soldier settlements.

Dispossession has not just been a one off thing. It continued until very recently in our history.

If we in this time are asked or even required to make a little bit of an effort in addressing the fruits of those dispossessions then only the most cantankerous should be complaining.

runner, there is quite a long list of the introduced diseases brought in by colonisation - and another list of diseases given to the colonisers by Indigenous Australians that has no entries. So your demand to be thanked for the doctors is ill informed. (I am sure you can find the list on the web).

Perhaps you are also mindful of the terrible and ugly tribal practices that were endemic to the British colonisers, such as child labour, the cat-o-nine tails etc not to mention the atrocities carried out towards their own mob. The history of Norfolk Island makes chilling reading as do the stories of the British prison system and their treatment of the vulnerable in their society. Are you suggesting that such Ugly tribal pracitices endemic to the British were nullified by coming to Australia?

The Welcome to Country is much more than a symbol - as well as a reminder of the traditional owners enduring connection to Country it can also be seen as an offering of peace and goodwill. In my darkest moments I sometimes wonder if it is wise to offer it, when so many non-Indigenous Australians are such an ungrateful selfserving lot.

Looks like the aboriginal grievance industry is at it again, trying to find something, anything, to advance the cause of inter racial hostility.

"Welcome to Country" is not a traditional aboriginal practice. It is a ceremony intended to proclaim aboriginal racial uniqueness and prior ownership of the continent of Australia. It is funny that it continued use is supported by the same sort of people who claim that racial differences are an illusion, and that all humans are the same.