Australia’s Shameful Secret | We Boo the Veterans We Pretend to Honor
Let’s get one thing straight: when boos erupted during Bunurong Elder Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country at Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service, the ignorance was deafening.
Those jeers in the pre-dawn darkness weren’t just disrespectful – they were a national embarrassment. Bogan Aussies booing an Indigenous Elder, beamed to viewers worldwide. What a bloody great look for Australia.
Here’s the reality check: Aboriginal people have been on this land for thousands of years. They’ve fought in EVERY Australian conflict since the Boer War. They’ve bled on foreign soil wearing our uniform. And you have the nerve to boo their Elder?
Give me a break.
“I was born here – why do I need to be welcomed?”
Simple answer: Welcome to Country isn’t about questioning your belonging – it’s recognizing the oldest continuous culture on earth and their ongoing connection to the land. Just as we stand for the anthem without feeling it questions our citizenship, Welcome to Country acknowledges history and cultural traditions that enrich, not diminish, our shared Australian identity. It’s not about you needing permission; it’s about respect.
Let’s Talk Facts, Not Feelings
The opposition to Welcome to Country on Anzac Day boils down to this pathetic argument: “It’s about veterans.”
Bullshit.
Indigenous Australians WERE those veterans. Around 1,000 fought in WWI. Another 3,000 in WWII. They served in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan -everywhere we’ve sent troops.
And guess what? They did this while being treated like second-class citizens at home. No voting rights. No equal pay. Often no veterans’ benefits when they returned.
That land you think they’re “distracting from” by acknowledging? It’s the same soil their ancestors walked for 65,000 years before white settlement. The same soil they left to fight and die for.
Not a Bloody Box-Ticking Exercise
Critics love to dismiss Welcome to Country as some modern political invention.
Wrong again.
These ceremonies have ancient roots in Aboriginal culture. They’re diplomatic protocols thousands of years old. When different Aboriginal tribes met, they demonstrated respect through these ceremonies.
Sound familiar? Like, I dunno, the Last Post? The minute’s silence? The wreath-laying?
All ceremonies derive power from tradition and repetition. That’s the bloody point.
The Political Opportunists Can Get Stuffed
Let’s call a spade a spade: when Peter Dutton claims “the majority of veterans don’t want Welcome to Country on Anzac Day,” he’s talking out of his arse.
Where’s his evidence? Nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, numerous RSL branches publicly support these ceremonies. These organisations – you know, the ones actually representing veterans – understand that recognising Indigenous connection doesn’t diminish respect for service.
Politicians reducing sacred cultural protocols to election fodder deserve our contempt. Using Anzac Day as a wedge issue? That’s genuinely disgraceful.
And those boos in Melbourne? Reports suggest they involved known white supremacist elements. Hardly representative of thoughtful veteran perspectives.
Names You Should Know But Probably Don’t
Corporal Harry Thorpe. A Gunai man awarded the Military Medal for bravery at Villers-Bretonneux.
Captain Reg Saunders. First Aboriginal Australian commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army.
Private Leonard Waters. The only Indigenous fighter pilot in the RAAF during World War II.
Aboriginal blood soaked foreign soil just like every other digger. Their sacrifice was every bit as profound. Yet their stories are erased when we pretend Indigenous acknowledgment is somehow separate from honouring military service.
The Truth
The ground beneath your feet at every Anzac Day service is Aboriginal land. Full stop.
The men and women being honoured include Indigenous soldiers who fought for a country that didn’t even recognise them as citizens.
When they returned home, many couldn’t enter RSL clubs or receive veterans’ benefits. But they served anyway.
And now some reckon a brief ceremony acknowledging this history is too much?
Pathetic.
Grow Up, Australia
The booing at Melbourne’s dawn service wasn’t patriotism – it was ignorance.
Real respect means acknowledging our FULL history – including the 65,000 years before European settlement AND the military service since.
Welcome to Country doesn’t compete with honouring veterans. It enriches it. It completes the picture of what they fought for: a land with deep, ancient meaning.
Both traditions honour connection to land. Both respect those who came before us. Both recognise sacrifice.
So next time you hear a Welcome to Country at an Anzac Day service, show some respect. You’re witnessing two Australian traditions coming together – not competing.
And if that makes you uncomfortable?
Tough shit. The truth often does.
