Brisbane's $135,000 Welcome to Country bill

A council has spent more than $100,000 of ratepayer money on Welcome to Country ceremonies in the last two years. Brisbane City Council has shelled out $135,000 while other councils within Queensland have forked out tens of thousands of dollars. The ratepayers have no say in the matter, though, as it's the councils they pay their fees to that have decided to spend big on the ceremonies. The renewed attention on Welcome to Country ceremonies followed the recent AFL finals, in particular the Giants versus Lions semi-final in Sydney where Aboriginal Elder Brendan Kerin said they 'weren't to cater for white people'. 'It's a ceremony we've been doing for 250,000 years BC - and the BC stands for Before Cook,' he told the crowd, referring to Captain James Cook's arrival in Australia in 1770. But the ceremony's modern form was invented less than 50 years ago by TV personality Ernie Dingo's dance troupe. The Great Outdoors presenter and his fellow dancers came up with the impromptu routine in 1976 after an awkward stand-off with Maori and Cook Islanders who refused to perform at Perth Arts Festival until they were ceremonially welcomed. Almost 50 years on, it has reached a point where a surf club was told it would have to pay $2,000 to an Aboriginal corporation for the rights to hold surf events and a fundraising swim at a public beach.

Snip, read the rest on the website.

So far the only people I can find commenting on this are chuds sneeding. If the story makes it to mainstream Australian subs I'll append them to this post.

From the Daily Mail's comment section:

I do not respect their elders past and present as my parents were born in the UK and they certainly don't respect mine. Let's stop this divisive practice. It divides more than it unites.

I work with a lot of Aboriginal people and the more culturally knowledgeable they are - the less likely they are to be involved in political stunts as they are out doing the actual work. Lovely people. I find the ones taking advantage or policies are the last culturally knowledgeable and who didn't grow up with any culture at all but as their granny was half Aboriginal, they hang on to that ancestry and deny existence of their bulk DNA. It's absolutely garbage.

I can't accept the lack of cohesive evidence. Not when Maori speak with one voice, one language, one custom set whilst here a multiitude speak for and over others. Competing claims i.e. one demands land another claims is theirs. This article says 'we've been doing these ceremonies for 250,000 years 'before cook' (a phrase from Sam Neil's Islander doco) yet it's admitted Ernie Dingo made up the current iteration. I'm expecting that to be denied in future. I haven't forgotten lessons on the last Tasmanian Indigenous woman, taught 'we' wiped out the rest. Now we're told that's all lies, there are Tasmanian indigenous. How can we take it seriously?

Might as well take out the word 'Unite'. The only thing this unites, is our money into their grubby hands, making the exchange through corrupt, woke council's.

As far as I am aware there is no legal requirement these rituals to be performed. Why not just refuse to hold them? I'm sure the world won't end if citizens are not welcomed to their own country.

Because of the left movement and cancel culture. Now with Trump being the POTUS, maybe Australians will have some hope in rejecting the leftists' delusional rites.

Australia had a chance at the last election. Th idi ots voted in labor. Some on federal and state levels. Hope they suffer now lol.

We are living on 60,000 year of inhabited land by indigenous Australians. You would think that Welcome to Country would be respected. Then Again!

and haven't they done a lot to develop the country.... not!

A fair and reasonable price #alwayswillbe

It seems a small price to pay for stealing trillions from them.

This land we call Australia was brutally stolen from our Indigenous people. Id rather my tax dollars go towards honouring part of their culture than on corporate welfare. The multinational corporations are the 21 carat leaners in this country. They pay voluntary tax . We could use that money to invest in universal healthcare, affordable housing for people on low incomes, public education etc.

/r/circlejerkaustralia :

https://old.reddit.com/r/circlejerkaustralia/comments/1gnric0/brisbanes_135000_welcome_to_country_bill/

A lot of jealousy here. I mean, who doesn't get ripped off by their landlord? It's normal. Peter, the 16 foot tall albino aboriginal says... The time has come. To say fair's fair. To pay the rent. Now to pay our share

They have as much relevance to Australia as ants and we don't pay ants rent

Can we have a referendum to piss off welcum to ladygardenry?

YEs we should ........and we know what the result would be too at least 60/40 bye bye.

Could you imagine the tough spot this would put governments in if they had undeniable proof that the majority want WTC gone. On the one hand they don't want to look "racist" and on the other they want a vote winner.

They already had it yet still want to proceed with treaty in some states. $500m to ask the country a question, then ignoring the answer altogether because you didn't get the outcome you wanted.

I recon Melbourne would vote yes to keep and the rest of Australia would vote no to get rid of

The parasites sucked until the host was dry. This is the tragedy of the commons.

Referendum won't work, albo does what he likes, that's his style (Dictatorship)

Better pay it, or the lazy greedy bastards will steel it

Remind me again why I need to be welcomed to my own country?

People are outrages because it is not inclusive enough. Acknowledgements need to be more thorough and acknowledge people being welcomed as well, preferrably by name and with individual. Sure this would delay kick of some events but it would be well worth it.

Indigenous Australians are the most heavily funded indigenous community in the world yet its still not enough, at what point do we say the rents been well & truly fckn paid enough is enough

They at least have a Premier who is cutting spending on 1st nations rubbish now unlike the woke lunatics they had before

/r/circlejerkaustralia has some funny moments but it's being overwhelmed by seething cuddies with no humour

!strayans