Video over the fold.
46 Responses to “Welcome to country ceremony – opening of 42nd Parliament”
Leave a Reply
Please read the comments policy. If you would like an icon beside your comment, please register a Gravatar.
There is a Comments Preview function below the typing box which activates when you start typing.
Parliamentarians “welcomed to country”?
What will happen if at some time in the future, (one of) the tribe(s) from Canberra refuse to “welcome to country” the parliament? Will tha parliament be illegitimate?
Presumably the fact that the parliament is voted there by the population of Australia trumps any “welcome” ceremony.
Fantastic!!!
Yep!
So much for me-too-ism, incidentally…
Kim, thanks so much for posting this — it’s just wonderful. And yes, it really brings it home that someone very different is now running the country.
Pleasure, Dr Cat!
Kim,
I noticed you included the recuing of the tape
I’m not the editor, Frank, just the grabber from YouTube!
You are excused then
BTW, to think that the Admiral Union Boss and Shrek are still upset about not being given the wording of the apology.
What a bunch of mean spirited dills.
Welcome To Country
Our journey has begun
We are travelling together
We call our ancestors, Ngambari
We call the spirits of the animals
We call the guardians of the land
We call across the land
We call our name, our people
We travel
We travel across the seas, the rivers, the mountains, the land
We meet friends and foe
Those alike, and unlike
Those who challenge, those who follow, those who lead
When we journey, we journey into the unknown
The unseen, the unplanned
We falter crossroads, barriers, obstacles
We encounter chasms, we stumble paths unknown
But we journey to our destination
We exchange a greeting, a welcome
The symbol of shared knowledge
Is passed on from one to another
From generation to generation
We are guided by the flow of water
The birds on the wind
The stars at night
Our journey continues into the future.
-ooo-
Didgeridoo resonates in marbled chamber, ages blend.
Paul Keating and John Howard were correct in this: when the government changes, the nation changes.
*Fan-bloody-tastic*
Best Youtube video yet, thanks Kim!
cheerio
I note with interest that Wilson Tuckey was wrong – for some reason it didn’t degenerate into a dance party, and nor was anyone force-fed witchety grubs. How strange…
There was a brief image of Tuckey looking unamused during the welcoming procession, which showed how out of touch he is.
Below is the text of the official apology:
“I give notice that, at the next sitting, I will move:
That
Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.”
wow.
Someone on the other thread asked about the Apology being shown live into WA at 6.55am, and thus being too early to be seen at school.
I believe that Ch 7’s sunrise are showing at 9.am Eastern Daylight Savings time, so I’m assuming that it may be on delay in WA so it will be at 9am WA Time.
I’ll give you an update when Perth’s Seven News is on and they say what time it will be on.
And speaking of Seven Perth, from their Newsmail.
[Hello, Rick Ardon with the latest in 7 Newsmail.
Tonight in Seven News, hear the words Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will use to apologise tomorrow to the stolen generations of Aborigines. And then have your say in our Pulse of Perth phone poll.]
One can predict what the result will be
I’m sorry but please indulge my cynicism:
Pulp
“The Day After The Revolution”
This is Hardcore
1999
The triumph of hope over experience, of optimism over cynicism.
I’m referring to the fact that I was very impressed by Rudd in the ceremony despite my normal scepticism.
The little things.
1.Walking backwards as the dij player approached.
2.Willing to accept being motioned on, ‘you go that way’, by the same fella.
3.Getting down to the level of the kids.
4.”Allowing’ women to be the prime foci of the show.
5.The wry humour in his speech about how long it took.
Took a little break there to watch the “7′30 Report” on ABC.
Brilliant program. I recommend you watch it.
Oh and I was impressed with Fred Chaney too.
Yes wonderful what an army of PR spin doctors can do. One thing you can say about Kevvie is he savvies the media.
>
it’s a very nice show. The Jabberfest of the Chosen Kilo will probably be a very nice show as well. I await with bated breath for actual consequence.
“The Jabberfest of the Chosen Kilo…….”
Ah well there my scepticism is way out in front and looking pretty safe.
I settle for the same number of cans of baked beans as the Royals once received from the Queensland government, Golden Circle pineapple,if,Kevin wants to roll the red carpet out my way by introduction,for insults and Offensive remarks against the general group of humans classed in some way as welfare recipients,by consecutive government at all levels.And a large can of Golden Circle pineapple catering size,to smooth the way for the beans!?
Adrien, you remind me of that great Oscar Wilde quote. “A cynic is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Adrien, I can’t be cynical about this significant moment in our history. A pop classic might be saying something to you – but right at this moment – a white blindfold and black armband are being delicately removed from the body politic.
The suffering and deprivations of generations of indigenous Australians is being formerly acknowledged by our nation.
The words can never be unsaid.
The day after tomorrow, is another day….but we’ll get to it, soon enough.
Marcia Langton on the 7.30 Report said that all her cynicism, her doubts and philosophical positions about an apology, have completely dissolved when she realised just how much the upcoming apology means to her aunties, uncles, cousins, her friends and acquaintances and so on.
Free advice – give your cynicism the day off – & tear up bro! It’s not every day a nation apologises to its indigenous peoples.
And even though, it’s taken such a long time for our fed. govt to make this apology, it is seems right, that it is Rudd, who will speak the words.
An apology delivered by someone who isn’t sorry – wouldn’t have been the same. JWH actually did the right thing by not apologising, in a way that only time & new circumstances can make so.
Bring them home, Kev.
Nicely put, jo. It’s got a much bigger meaning than Kevin Rudd, and I’m sure he knows that. (I think he’s sincere though! It’s possible – I know it’s difficult for some to understand – to be sincere and wanting to be a successful politician. I don’t agree with the reflex cynicism that assumes all pollies are frauds.)
Ps – I was very moved by the personal testimonies on Lateline.
Let’s be charitable to poor old People Skills for once and refrain from dissecting his words, though.
I noticed with interest that Tuckey was way away from the other pollies in the courtyard, up on the balcony.
thanks kim, i’ve just put the new cheapo chemist reading glasses on, finally.
‘formally acknowledged’ – and oops. for the all the other typo’s.
am likewise over the reflex cynicism, but this past week, i’ve been more appalled at the bile, sniping, denials, etc. around the traps….only a few hours hours to go, now.
next stop baghdad.
for those that aren’t acquainted with Ironbar’s history:
“……Tuckey reportedly faced in 1967 for beating an Aboriginal man with an iron bar, allegedly while the man was being held down. Tuckey was convicted of assault and fined $50.”
another vid of the ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1JwyxNh3Ak
Hannah’s Dad @ 17, jo @ 22
A new day dawns, a great day for a nation; thanks for your discerning and eloquent posts
cheerio
Adrien (18), every day in parliment is a jabberfest anyhow so I fail to see how this can do any harm.
Steve at the pub (1), that’s a fair enough point to make but I don’t think it will happen. Surley we’re not the first Commonwealth country to include an indiginous ceromony in the opening of parliment (the innuit/native americans, the maori?)
Me, I’m just waiting for that bloke in the wig and girly costume to slip when knocking and put that staff straight through those expensive-looking glass doors. That’d be a home video worth a million bucks.
I hardly think it’s the time for Jarvis Cocker to lecture to Aboriginal elders. This is real, not a music industry stunt.
In the deep North people own dogs. Dogs have certain advantages over people. They are more loyal and more honest. In fact they can’t lie. They haven’t the ability.
>
In the Deep North the dogs are racists. The Blackfella Dog will attack the white people, the Whitefella dog will attacks the black people. Often it’s quite savage. The dogs know what their masters feel and act accordingly. Only humans can maintain a subterfuge of peace in a battlefront atmosphere. I had some frinds who worked in one of the communities up there. They had a nice dog, very easy to love. One of the things they dug about the pooch was she wasn’t racist. This was unusual.
>
Will the dogs in the Territory today be peaceful and still because of these words?
>
No it’s not a music industry stunt. It’s a different industry. And Helen, Jarvis wasn’t lecturing anybody. He was expressing a truth about revolutions: about revolutionary kitsch. Kitsch in the Kunderan sense of the exclusion of everything unacceptable.
>
Is this apology significant? yes. It’s a signal that some of us are endorsing the very least we can do. Will it change things materially? No.
>
The revolution begins and ends with you. That’s why its so hard. But in the end I hope you’re all right and I truly am proved someone who knows the value of nothing.
“In the Deep North the dogs are racists. The Blackfella Dog will attack the white people, the Whitefella dog will attacks the black people.”
Adrien, sounds like you’re in the Deep North, sucking on a big caney.
‘Why did it seem so difficult to realise a simple truth?’
Well, that’s the question for those who were so reluctant to say the S word for so long, and for whom a Welcome to Country was completely out of the question.
Yes, not 100% sure what point Adrien is making with that analogy. Does the central Queensland coast count as the deep north? None of the dogs in my neighbourhood are racist. I think Queensland has come a fair way from the days when we were considered the deep north. Or for those who have seen the play, the far flung province of Bjelk Bjelk, ruled over by the tyrannical two bit dictator called Bjo Bjo.
Anita –
And BFF
Mmm are you guys for real? Firstly Anita I actually support an apology. My cynicism doesn’t rest on the “We Have Nothing To Apologise For” pile of doggerel but on this kitschy festival of
loveself-congratulatory senitment by which so many are bathing the warm inner glow created by their own self satisfaction. The apology, the opening ceremony are something I well recognize – showbusiness.>
Far from hailing the Rudd revolution I have my most severe doubts that he’s anything but yet another Labor apparachnik. Perchance is this ceremony a simple continuity of this country’s dance between the thoughtlessly draconian, the uselessly symbolic and the status quo by which we simply don’t think about it? Evey time the absolutely shithouse civil war and famine style lives of many indigenous citizens in this country are brought into our faces, we all turn into instant experts for three and a half minutes and then change the channel. The last time was when the Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions brought the daily Sadean of much Aboriginal ‘community’ life to the attention of urban majority on Lateline.
>
At the time it was the Right who indulged their triumphalist chestbeating proclivities by using it as an excuse to dump on the Left and its welfare policies. 99% of the energy expended by the Howard govt and its supporters went into using this national shame to beat their political opposition around the head. The other 1% went into the ‘let’s ban grog’ laws requiring, I shouldn’t wonder, an entire ten minutes of consideration.
>
Now the table is turned and what happens? A ceremony and don’t we all feel good? We can get our own back, let’s all get together and dump on Brendan Nelson the post-defeat flackcatcher.
>
Well fine. I sincerely hope this ends the decades long policy of half-baked measures re indigenous issues which includes two options: ignore it, throw money at it and tell it to piss off.
>
What point was I making? Are you serious? It ain’t hard. The point is that there are parts of this country where racial emnity cuts so deep that the very dogs themselves are bigots!!! Dogs have more ‘races’ than any other species on Earth and they never worry about it. Ever seen a cocker spaniel deny a poodle a place in the park? But there are places where the relatively superficial variety amongst the human species becomes a fighting matter, automatically.
>
And no BFF the central Qld coast is not the deep North. So the point you made is utter silliness disguised (to yourself) as wit.
Utter silliness disguised as wit? No Adrien, now if I were to say that your comment wounded me so deeply that upon reading it I put on a sad songs album and flung myself upon the bed, weeping softly into my pillow, box of kleenex in one hand and cadbury dairy milk tray in the other……..now THAT’S silliness.
Adrien, I agree if nothing else happens than the apology is worse then useless. But, the indigenous people in the Great Hall and on the lawns of Parliament didn’t seem to think it was just ’show business’. So, why you don’t have a chat to them about its meaning? Or do you think you know better?
“What point was I making? Are you serious? It ain’t hard. The point is that there are parts of this country where racial emnity cuts so deep that the very dogs themselves are bigots!!!”
Yeh, whatevs. Obscurantist.
BFF – Was the Cadbury milk tray soft centres or hard? I suggest Leonard Cohen.
>
Do I think I know better than who, Fine? I’ve known quite a few persons of Aboriginal heritage, they’re all quite different from one another. I’m not sure any of ‘em are on the Parliamentary lawn right this minute. I guess I’ll have to get back to you on that one. But what’s the point of the question? Am I s’posed to shut up because hearts are hope-filled? My skepticism is, and has always been directed at the political process; I’ll believe it when I see something – concrete.
>
Anita there’s nothing obscure about it. Saying something doesn’t make it so.
Adrien, the point of the question is there are obviously many indigenous people who feel differently than you and certainly know more about what they want and need than either you or me. The point (rather obviously) is perhaps you could pay more attention to their perspective and listen to indigenous people talking about how much this is meant to them. Perhaps you could start by discussing it with the indigenous people you know. Show business? Bah humbug!
Fine, I have no doubt it means something to them. I’ve read what Cathy Freeman, Archie Roach etc have to say and they make the best case for an apology I’ve heard. And I find their warm-hearted enthusiasm very touching. I’m not sure the rest of us deserve it however. I support the Apology..
>
It ain’t Apology bah humbug it’s more like, well to quote from another ‘revolution’ pop song:
As I said, Adrien it will be a shocker if nothing happens after the apology. But I just think that scepticism, or cynicism, can just become an easy fallback position. Surely, then the job for all of us is to attempt to ensure that it doesn’t become the proverbial “clanging gong”. And as whiteys, there are many things we can do to ensure a “real solution”.
Fine –
Given the flack I’ve copped here and elsewhere I think it’s anything but easy. But if Kevvie makes good I promise to sit in the corner wearing a funny hat. Deal?
Absolutely a deal. Cheers.
This ceremony is a waste of money. Money should be spent on keeping immigrants out, huge parties at Kirribilli House (which is now sadly vacant!) and of course big handouts to middle class people whenever they have a baby, or quite frankly, sneeze! They deserve it. And what’s going on with the Inquisition… I mean, Intervention?! A bloody good idea that one. That chap that used to host Family Feud was doing a great job as Minister for the Blacks.
I’m sorry.
>
But this is the link we had to have:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/55-apologies/
>
Courtesy of Jason Soon.
>
Couldn’t resist. Sorry.