The Australian tradition of Welcome to Country has become a topic of conversation again, primarily because some American blowhards watching the Melbourne NFL game were confused by it.
For a start, this is a conversation for Australians to have amongst ourselves, not for some foreign blow-ins who have never even tasted a meat pie to lecture us on. It’s somewhat comical that the same people who say every migrant should leave their own culture behind and submit to the Australian way, fall over themselves to agree when an American says we suck.
The local criticism of Welcome to Country comes down to several points:
- It’s performative
- It’s symbolic
- It doesn’t achieve anything
- It’s virtue signalling
You know what? I’m inclined to agree.
But if you think about it for just a few seconds, there are plenty of other rituals performed at public events that you could say exactly the same thing about.
What about flying the national flag?
What about singing the national anthem?
It’s ALL performative virtue signalling that doesn’t achieve anything. No one was raised out of poverty by a rousing rendition of Advance Australia Fair.
And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.
You want to fly the flag? Fly the flag!
You want to sing the anthem? Go for your life! Just try to stay in tune.
You want to pledge allegiance to the king? Well, I’m not going to join you, but you do whatever makes you happy.
Just don’t try to tell me it isn’t performative symbolism, because it is. It’s no more or less performative depending on whether you like it or not.
So, make all the criticisms you feel are valid. Just try to keep them consistent, because we’d all have a lot more time if we abandoned everything anyone thought was symbolic and didn’t achieve anything.
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