Neo-Nazis booing Welcomes to Country is a symptom, not a cause

It wouldn’t be an Australian election without a culture war erupting in a bid to score votes, or without Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being used as a political football. Yet, here we are again, days out from the next government being decided, and instead of actual policies being discussed, certain political leaders are grandstanding about Welcome to Country ceremonies.

It was upsetting, not to mention downright distressing, to see the footage of Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country being booed at the Melbourne ANZAC Day service. No Aboriginal person should ever have to put up with that, but particularly when they are giving the audience the gift of respect, knowledge and inclusion by providing a Welcome.

It particularly distressed me as the granddaughter of Corporal Harold Liddle, an Arrernte man who enlisted and served in Darwin and multiple locations of the South-East Asian Theatre during World War II. I am not the knowledge keeper on my grandfather’s service — I was only three when he passed away, and other more senior family members have his records.

However, I do know that Grandfather Harold served for more than four years, and that when he enlisted, he was legally not considered a citizen. I have been consistently told that he enlisted because he wanted to “protect his country”, a statement that has multiple meanings for Aboriginal people.

A Welcome at a Dawn Service is another gesture of “protecting country”, consistent with this history of Indigenous men and women serving, and delivered in what should have been the most fitting circumstances.

What was particularly absurd though was how quickly news coverage sought to diminish this booing to something undertaken by a “small group” of “neo-Nazis”, as if this disrespect was a mere aberration. It may have been a small, inflammatory group, but years of erasure, misinformation and political point-scoring at the cost of Indigenous people fuelled their actions.

These neo-Nazis may have organised themselves, but can our media, politicians or indeed the general public truly claim there were not hordes of people nodding along in agreeance, seemingly forgetting in their rush to demonise Indigenous people that the veterans they were allegedly honouring actually fought Nazis?

Have people, for example, missed the Trumpet of Patriots’ endless prime-time ads misrepresenting the meaning of Welcomes to Country? Or Pauline Hanson bleating online about Welcomes, about how Australians are “sick of this division”? Hanson’s social media demonstrates what I mean about those sitting at home agreeing. If you want to see this ignorance perpetuated in real time, just flip through the comments on her posts — or on almost any news site’s posts.

The sad thing is, there are votes in fuelling this ignorance. Peter Dutton twisted himself into a pretzel chasing the racist vote by first condemning the booing — indicating Welcomes were an important part of the proceedings and of acknowledging Indigenous service people — before backtracking on Monday by suggesting Dawn Services did not warrant a Welcome ceremony, saying that the day should be about “our veterans”.

Are my grandfather and other Indigenous service men and women no longer counted as veterans now?

Dutton seems to be borrowing from his predecessors. John Howard, via his own manufactured culture wars, managed to turn a day of sombre reflection and respect into an opportunity for folks to engage in the very worst displays of jingoism. Never mind the stories of veterans who actually served, or the horrific truths of war — these were shelved for nationalistic revisionism and flag-waving, the likes of which we’re now witnessing.

If this event were an anomaly, then perhaps it could have been written off. It wasn’t, though. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people endured the Voice referendum only 18 months ago, a time when playing on community ignorance to “win” while fuelling misinformation was the order of the day. The general public grew to believe that the Australian constitution was akin to the US Bill of Rights, an artefact that must be “protected” at all costs, rather than a living document designed to be altered to ensure appropriate governance.

Ignorance was so successful that today, conservatives frequently claim “we voted No” as if the referendum was a vote on accepting all things Indigenous, and not a simple question on a powerless representative body.

Some of the most consistent misinformation relates to Welcomes to Country. There is nothing “divisive” about them. Indeed, in a country that is yet to negotiate treaty, they are educative, hopeful and generously inclusive. I have repeatedly seen claims that Welcomes are also “not traditional”, with some going so far as to suggest they were made up in the 1970s as a money spinner. Apart from this not being remotely true, why can many white Australians only conceptualise Aboriginal culture as static and unchangeable? Are they so racist that they assume our cultures did not shift and adapt over several millennia when needed? Are they also saying that, post-colonisation, there is no space for modern cultural practices based around inclusion? Why does white culture get to evolve and change over time, yet we are consistently spoken about as if we floated around in suspended animation until contact?

The real division being driven here comes from the inability to show respect for Indigenous people and lands, despite the Frontier Wars, the Indigenous veterans who fought in Australia’s wars, and the continued presence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence forces. This, along with politicians continuing to demonise our communities in order to score mainstream votes, instead of presenting actual policy platforms that may progress this country to a more respectful and inclusive future.

It’s tiring, it’s deceitful, and while many Indigenous people have “fought for this country”, I’d wager they sure as hell did not fight for this to be its future.

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