Reflection week 1 EDF2031

By Stephanie Lindsay
During my class edf2031 indigenous perspective on teaching
and learning, we talked in small detail about Aboriginal
ceremonys such as Acknowledgement of country I was
unaware of this custom or the custom of welcome to country,
my thinking was that they were the same ceremony just under
different titles. Upon a bit of research on the subject I found out
how important these ceremonys where and how different they
both were from each other.
For example it came to my attention that while an
Acknowledgement of country can be done by anyone of the
community, a Welcome to Country is performed by and
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander custodian or an Elder from
the local region or area. That while Acknowledgement of
country can be done in an assembly, meeting or event, a
Welcome to Country is performed at an event to celebrate or
mark an occasion.
In my opinion I believe that bringing both of these ceremonys
into the school education system is not only a brilliant way to
pay respect to a people that came before us but a way to pass
on that respect to a younger generation. It also brings closer
together two different communities. Now while I think that
Welcome to Country should be performed on appropriate
special occasions I think that Acknowledgement of country
should be done on the first class of each week, so that a sense
of acknowledgment and respect is always in the childrens
minds.
Further expanding on the idea of respect and
acknowledgement, bringing in the Aboriginal flag to be
displayed in each class room alongside the Australian Flag
would help enforce the idea of understanding between two
communities until it comes to the point that Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Island Culture is a part of the everyday school

education from music to history and language to health.

References
Peter Anderson. (2014). EDF2031 week 1 PDF. Pg 1
Carolyn Briggs. (2012). Welcome to country. Retrieved March
8th 2014. From http://aatv.atsiphj.com.au/index.php?
option=com_videoflow&task=play&id=30
Bp. Protocols for Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of
Traditional Ownership PDF. Retrieved March 8th 2014. From
http://www.google.com.au/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDsQFjAC
&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bp.com%2Fliveassets
%2Fbp_internet%2Faustralia%2Fcorporate_australia
%2FSTAGING%2Flocal_assets%2Fdownloads_pdfs
%2FProtocol_for_WelcometoCountry_Final.pdf&ei=RR4dU8u9Ec
n7kgWS4YDoCg&usg=AFQjCNE1zGkLoHWUoM3nAMOjrKdw2xr
W2g&sig2=QYYlHhNt47z5gbADA6hECw&bvm=bv.62578216,d.
dGI
Department of education and early childhood development.
(2010). Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country
A Guide for Victorian Schools PDF. Retrieved March 8th 2014.
From
www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/govrel/Policy/wannik/
welcome-to-country-guide-lr.pdf