Brisbane taxpayers are being hit with a crazy $135,000 Welcome to Country bill – and there’s nothing they can do about it

One community has spent more than $100,000 in taxpayer money on Welcome to Country ceremonies over the past two years.

Brisbane City Council has paid out $135,000, while other councils in Queensland have paid out tens of thousands of dollars.

However, the taxpayers have no say in this, as it is the municipalities to which they pay their dues and who have decided to spend a lot of money on the ceremonies.

The renewed focus on the Welcome to Country ceremonies followed the recent AFL finals, particularly the Giants versus Lions semi-final in Sydney, where Aboriginal elder Brendan Kerin said they were “not meant for white people”.

“It’s a ceremony we’ve been performing since 250,000 years before Christ – and BC stands for Before Cook,” he told the crowd, referring to Captain James Cook’s arrival in Australia in 1770.

But the modern form of the ceremony was invented less than fifty years ago by TV personality Ernie Dingo’s dance troupe.

The Great Outdoors presenter and his fellow dancers devised the improvised routine in 1976 after an awkward confrontation with Maori and Cook Islanders who refused to perform at the Perth Arts Festival until they were ceremonially welcomed.

Nearly fifty years later, the point has been reached where a surf club was told it had to pay $2,000 to an Aboriginal company for the rights to host surfing events and raise money on a public beach.

Welcome to Country ceremonies have now become a regular part of everyday life in Australia and are seen as a sacred tradition to launch public events such as the AFL

A spokeswoman said Brisbane City Council spent $84,711 on Welcome to Country ceremonies in 2023 and $50,490 so far this year. Sunday post reported.

“Welcome to Country ceremonies are organized for events including citizenship ceremonies, civic receptions and cultural and indigenous events, which will account for approximately 25 percent of civic events held in 2023 and 2024,” she said.

“These ceremonies include tribal dances with fire lighting and smoke ceremonies in place of an individual speaker.”

The standard rate for Welcome to Country ceremonies ranges from $300 to $750, according to figures from the National Association for the Visual Arts.

Peak body Reconciliation Australia said the use of Acknowledgment of Country and Welcome to Country at meetings, gatherings and events demonstrates respect by upholding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural protocols.

“Taking time to acknowledge Country, or include a Welcome to Country at an event, reminds us that we live, work and dream on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands every day,” the organization said.

But there is growing frustration among ordinary Australians about the practice and its costs, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.

The Yamba Surf Club, on the far north coast of NSW, has applied to the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation to use the town’s main beach to host four events, including a tangle carnival and an ocean swim to raise money in the summer.

But the club was told it would have to pay a $500 service fee for each event before the company could perform the Welcome to Country ceremonies.

Richard Walley (pictured in 2022) led the Middar Aboriginal Theater group in 1976, which included a young Ernie Dingo, and created the Welcome to Country with local Nyoongar Elders

Surf club members made the request after the Yaegl people were granted native title over land in the area in 2015 and over a stretch of ocean in 2017.

While club members were outraged by the compensation, Bill Walker, chief executive of Yaegl Traditional Owners Corporation, said a “misunderstanding” was to blame.

He said the request should have come from the council or state government, and the fee should have been charged to them – and not the surf club. ‘It’s a confusing process.

‘We receive a lot of negative comments from people who do not understand the welcome in the country. “We don’t do it for a livelihood, we do it as a cultural activity with a fee for services that generate income, just like any other organization,” he said. News Corp.

“If it’s a government agency doing this, we charge because it’s a legitimate action. But we’re not going to press charges against the surf rescue club.

‘As far as I am concerned, they can still do their work and we will not charge them any service costs, because the right people did not come to us.’

Surf club officials had written to the company telling them they understood the importance of respecting indigenous property rights “and that they are committed to ensuring our operations comply with all relevant regulations and agreements.”

An official from the Yaegl wrote back to the surf club stating that a ‘service payment fee’ of $500 was to be paid ‘directly to the Corporation who will then engage a native Yaegl title holder to administer a Welcome to Country’ .

“The company will send an invoice for payment once the event has occurred and since we are a non-profit organization, we would appreciate a quick turnaround time for payment,” the letter said.

The Yamba Surf Club, on the far north coast of NSW, had applied to the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation to use the town’s main beach to host four events, including a tanga carnival and an ocean swim to raise money in the summer.

‘This will support all visitors and participants in these fundraising events (to) maintain an understanding of the importance of respecting the indigenous title rights and interests of the Yaegl people on the land, in the sea and on the waterways when they compete ( op) or visit our beautiful Yaegl country.’

But a surf club member said many locals were “outraged” by the request.

“It’s quite un-Australian to ask anyone to use the beach, let alone volunteer surf lifesavers who want to compete and raise money for their club,” he said.

Back in Queensland, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate was criticized by local Aboriginal groups for the council not reading out recognition of the land at meetings.

But he told the ABC that ‘Everything is going well here. (During) citizenship (ceremonies) we do recognition’.

‘Council matters are municipal matters. We sing our national anthem and I think that’s good enough.’

There is also some resistance within Indigenous communities to the Welcome to Country ceremonies.

Warren Mundine, a prominent Aboriginal campaigner who opposed the Voice referendum last year, said the Welcome to Country ceremonies were “divisive” and “trivialised”.

“I’m going to some conferences and you spend half the day doing Welcome to Country,” he said.