{"id":114868,"date":"2025-09-03T05:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T05:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114868\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T05:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T05:02:13","slug":"north-queensland-council-bans-welcome-to-country-we-dont-do-that-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114868\/","title":{"rendered":"North Queensland council bans Welcome to Country: ‘We don’t do that here’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CAITLIN POWELL – NEWS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 22:12 EDT, 2 September 2025 | Updated: 23:20 EDT, 2 September 2025 <\/p>\n

Welcome to Country ceremonies have been ousted from a North Queensland<\/a> council following advice from an Aboriginal corporation.<\/p>\n

It is understood Burdekin Shire Council voted to adopt its own protocol for the practice.<\/p>\n

Mayor Pierina Dalle Cort has also told the Townsville Bulletin<\/a> the organisation was no longer holding Welcome to Country ceremonies.<\/p>\n

Meeting minutes from the council, seen by the publication, said the authority has introduced the change on legal advice based on correspondence from the Kyburra Munda Yulga Aboriginal Corporation.<\/p>\n

‘We’re just keeping to our own place, we don’t have Welcome to Country, we don’t do that here and that’s it basically,’ Ms Dalle Cort said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Juru people of the Shire of Burdekin announced in December last year that they would end Welcome to Country ceremonies on their land.<\/p>\n

Speaking to 4BC on Wednesday, Juru Elder Randall Ross said Elders had met to agree on the decision due to misuse and a feeling that the practice had lost cultural significance.<\/p>\n

‘We’re only speaking for our country and that’s why it’s important that we can see it well and truly being abused,’ he told Bill McDonald.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A North Queensland council has stopped Welcome to Country ceremonies (pictured, players pause for Welcome to Country during the 2025 AFLW Round 03 match)<\/p>\n

‘It makes us feel embarrassed,’ he said, adding that Elders from the Burdekin region had seen from people who weren\u2019t local who were paid for delivering it.<\/p>\n

‘Welcome to Country has become a business that supports certain individuals and that\u2019s where they are losing the cultural insight about what the Welcome to Country\u2019s are about.<\/p>\n

‘This is a stand that we are taking in our particular area, and I think it\u2019s been long overdue.’<\/p>\n

Ms Dalle Cort welcomed the decision by the Juru people to stop the ceremonies on their land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I can’t get into a political nightmare here but all I can say is I’m happy to work with the traditional owners,’ she told Newscorp outlets<\/a>\u00a0at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We had the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ vote (Voice referendum) and that vote should have been listened to at that time as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We’re multicultural, we’re one country and we’ve all got to learn to live and work together.<\/p>\n

‘It’ll probably be an early Christmas present to a lot of people. I’ve already had some responses from people saying things like, “Finally common sense has prevailed”.’<\/p>\n

\"Juru <\/p>\n

Juru Elder Randall Ross (pictured) confirmed that Elders had met to agree it was time to stop delivering Welcome to Country ceremonies due to a feeling that they had been ‘abused’<\/p>\n

In May this year, the council then decided not to hold a Welcome to Country ceremony at the Sweet Days, Hot Nights festival.<\/p>\n

A representative from the Gudjuda Reference Group Aboriginal Corporation, based at the Home Hill showgrounds, has previously delivered the ceremony at the event.<\/p>\n

Legal advice reportedly recommended the ceremony not be performed – a move endorsed by council members.<\/p>\n

Daily Mail has contacted\u00a0Kyburra Munda Yulga Aboriginal Corporation and\u00a0Burdekin Shire Council for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Welcome to Country is a traditional Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ceremony in which the local custodians formally welcome visitors to their ancestral lands.<\/p>\n

While widely seen as a gesture of respect, its growing presence in official settings has become a flashpoint in Australia’s culture wars.<\/p>\n

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\n North Queensland council bans Welcome to Country: ‘We don’t do that here’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By CAITLIN POWELL – NEWS REPORTER Published: 22:12 EDT, 2 September 2025 | Updated: 23:20 EDT, 2 September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[100,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-114868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dailymail","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}