Solidarity statement: Welcome to Country ceremonies

28 April 2025

Amnesty International Australia expresses its solidarity with Bunurong and Gunditjmara Elder Uncle Mark Brown, veteran and Noongar Elder Di Ryder and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders in the wake of the appalling disruption to Welcome to Country ceremonies at ANZAC Day dawn services in Melbourne and Perth by a small group of people associated with neo-Nazi groups.

Amnesty Australia also extends solidarity to Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy who was left "heartbroken" after she was suddenly and unexpectedly uninvited from performing the Welcome to Country ceremony for NRL fans on Friday evening in response to the events at the dawn services.

Welcome to Country ceremonies are among the oldest cultural ceremonies on earth and have been practised continuously on the land now known as Australia for tens of thousands of years. It is a profound act of generosity and reconciliation for Aboriginal Elders to perform Welcome to Country ceremonies at public events, offering a blessing and extended hand for those gathering on their traditional lands.

"A Welcome to Country is a cultural protocol that First Nations communities have been conducting for thousands of years, as an act of reciprocity when other mobs travelled to visit their homelands. Our Elders have fought hard to have this respectful ceremony inserted as a cultural norm in Australian society, and we all should be standing up to protect this advancement, and not let Indigenous Rights be wound back in this country," says Rach McPhail, Gomeroi woman, Amnesty International Australia's Indigenous Rights Campaign Organiser.

"Our Elders have fought hard to have this respectful ceremony inserted as a cultural norm in Australian society, and we all should be standing up to protect this advancement, and not let Indigenous Rights be wound back in this country."

Amnesty Australia acknowledges the significant distress and hurt many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People are feeling in the wake of the appalling attacks on Elders generously welcoming members of the public to Country and stands in solidarity with First Nations people in this moment and in the ongoing fight against racism.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans and historians have spent years advocating for better recognition of the service of the First Nations soldiers. Known as Black Diggers, the men bravely fought for Australia before returning home and experiencing exclusion from services and privileges afforded to other veterans and until recent years, erasure from the ANZAC story.

Amnesty Australia expresses its solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans and their family members who felt particularly hurt by the Welcome to Country ceremony at an ANZAC Day service being targeted.

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all - and we can only do it with your support.

Act now or learn more about our work on Indigenous Justice.