Welcome to Country ... Not (Darug People's Land Claims) (Essay‪)‬

INTRODUCTION What does it mean when Australian institutions include Indigenous representations of identity and ownership in official ceremonies which are also claims to national identity and ownership? Are local councils, state and federal governments, and private enterprise finally acknowledging what native title hearings, especially in urban contexts, usually deny: that specific Aboriginal Australians are the prior owners of the land on which all now live? I do not think so. But what does it mean when Australian state officials of various kinds including organisers of public and private meetings, functions, conferences, art exhibitions, sporting events and even the opening of federal Parliament, not only invite and appear to appreciate what amount to symbolic land claims, but participate in the ceremonial aspects of the claims by acknowledging those who make them? Perhaps a clue is that this occurs even (and perhaps especially) where the nation's legal system does not recognise Indigenous ownership per se. However, if state officials think that the legal restrictions to the recognition of native title completely protect them from the moral claims of traditional Aboriginal owners they are mistaken as I will demonstrate.