Welcome to Country: Acknowledgement, Belonging and White Anti-racism

Cultural Studies Review 21 (2) (2015)
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Abstract

The Welcome to Country ceremony and its twin, the Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners, have become prominent anti-racist rituals in the post-settler society of Australia. These rituals are rich in meaning. They are simultaneously emblems of colonisation and dispossession; of recognition and reconciliation; and a periodic focus of political posturing. This article analyses the multiple meanings of WTC ceremonies. In particular, I explore the politics of belonging elicited by WTC and Acknowledgement rituals. Drawing on ethnography of non-Indigenous people who work in Indigenous affairs, I argue that widespread enjoyment of these rituals among White anti-racists is explained because they paradoxically experience belonging through a sense of not belonging.

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References found in this work

Acknowledgement.[author unknown] - 1997 - Linguistics and Philosophy 20 (6):747-748.
Acknowledgement.[author unknown] - 2003 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 2 (1):95-95.

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