This year on Anzac Day, at ceremonies across the country and replayed over and over in the news, we heard something that came as a surprise to some Australians, but something that I hear all too often: “Stop welcoming me to my own country.”

It is a familiar objection, and one that reveals a deep misunderstanding of what a Welcome to Country actually is. It is not a welcome to “Australia”. It is not a civic greeting, or a polite formality acknowledging the Australian nation-state. It is something far older, far deeper, and as culturally significant as Anzac Day ceremonies themselves.

Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown delivers the Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images

Welcome to Country is a sovereign Aboriginal protocol, grounded in the laws, customs and practices of First Nations that have existed on this continent for tens of thousands of years. When Aboriginal people speak about “Country”, we are not referring to Australia, the nation defined by its colonial borders. We are speaking of places, lands, waters, skies and beings, held together in intricate relatedness, through ancestral connection, custodianship and deep responsibility.

Country is not just geography. It is connection. It is........

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