Source : the age
Indigenous groups say they have been left dumbfounded and distressed after the Welcome to Country at Melbourne Storm’s Anzac Day NRL match was cancelled at the last minute, hours after neo-Nazis disrupted the ceremony at the city’s dawn service.
Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy said she had been scheduled to perform the service at AAMI Park on Friday night before the Storm’s clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Aunty Joy Murphy delivering the Welcome to Country at a previous Storm home game.Credit: Getty Images
Performances from the Maori Ngā Mātai Pūrua and Djirri Djirri, a Wurundjeri female dance group, were also planned.
But as other Indigenous performers rehearsed on the field, Murphy said she was told by the club’s board that it no longer wanted her to conduct the Welcome to Country. The two other First Nations groups refused to continue their performances as a result.
“We were all just dumbfounded,” she said late on Friday.
Murphy, who has performed the Welcome to Country at Melbourne events for years, said the Storm then reversed its position, apologised, and asked her to continue with her ceremony as originally planned.
Indigenous dancers perform during the Welcome to Country before a Melbourne Storm-Cronulla Sharks match.Credit: Getty Images
After a lengthy discussion with the other two Indigenous groups, including Djirri Djirri lead dancer Ky-ya Nicholson Ward and Ngā Mātai Pūrua president Tyson Tuala, the First Nations contingent decided not to perform.
Speaking late Friday, Storm chairman Matt Tripp said the matter was a misunderstanding between the board and club management.
Tripp explained the board had approved the ceremony for multicultural round and indigenous round but not Anzac Day.
“We weren’t sure it was happening in this game, and when we asked the question, there was a bit of confusion,” Tripp told his masthead.
Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown delivering the Welcome to Country at the dawn service.Credit: Getty Images
He said the board would consider approving the Welcome to Country for future Anzac Day matches.
Tripp said he wasn’t aware of the disturbance during the Welcome to Country at the Dawn Service in Melbourne earlier on Anzac Day.
“I had no idea. I had been working all day and wasn’t aware, but that was disgraceful this morning. We strongly condemn that behaviour,” Tripp said.
The Indigenous performers noted far-right agitators had earlier booed and heckled Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country at Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, veterans’ groups and Indigenous leaders condemned the neo-Nazis who booed and heckled as tens of thousands gathered to honour those who served in Australia’s armed forces.
As she arrived at AAMI Park this afternoon, Aunty Joy said such disruptions made her even more determined to stand proudly at such events.
Murphy said Storm gave no explanation to the Indigenous groups for the club’s initial cancellation, other than Storm chief executive Justin Rodski telling them it was a board decision.
“After being disrespected, we couldn’t then go forward with a smile on our face and act,” Nicholson Ward said.
“We would dearly love to be out there, but they’ve broken our hearts,” Murphy said.
“We want to rebuild our relationship. We want to make them that this was wrong, hurtful, deceitful and tokenistic. But we want to help look after our communities in the NRL and the current players for Storm too.”
Shouts shatter silence during dawn service
At Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service, convicted neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant led several men in a co-ordinated stunt of booing and heckling during Brown’s Welcome to Country, shattering the pre-dawn hush.
They heckled again during Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner’s address.
Each time a speaker thanked the traditional owners, the group jeered from the middle of the crowd, their identities obscured by the darkness.
Others in the crowd cheered and clapped the speakers as they tried to project their voices over the hecklers.
Victoria Police confirmed a 26-year-old Kensington man was interviewed and released after the incident, and that he was expected to be charged on summons with offensive behaviour. Last year, Hersant became the first person in Victoria to be convicted for performing the Nazi salute.
Police lead away white supremacist Jacob Hersant, who heckled the Welcome to Country at the dawn service at Melbourne’s Shrine of Rememberance.Credit: Getty Images
“There is no place in Australia for what occurred in Melbourne,” Albanese said in a statement.
“A neo-Nazi disrupting Anzac Day is abhorrent, un-Australian, and disgraceful. The people responsible must face the full force of the law.”
The men at the shrine on Friday claimed to be protesting against the Welcome to Country ceremonies on a day they said should be dedicated to Australian war veterans.
Indigenous soldiers have served in every conflict involving Australian defence contingents since 1901, according to the Australian War Memorial, including at least 70 who fought at Gallipoli.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a long and proud history of serving and sacrifice for this country,” said the Bunurong Land Council in a statement following the incident.
“The actions of a few this morning are abhorrent and do not deserve to take away any more from today.”
Hours later, a heckler shouted obscenities during a Welcome to Country at Perth’s dawn service in Kings Park.
Jeers rang out as Noongar elder and former soldier Di Ryder took to the podium for the traditional welcome. The crowd quickly hushed the heckler.
At the shrine in Melbourne, John Selleck said he had participated in Anzac Day commemorations for decades and was disappointed the event was interrupted.
“It’s not the place for that. It’s a place for remembrance. You should leave all that political stuff behind,” the CFA lieutenant said. “We’re here to pay our respects.”
Selleck said it was an important occasion for his family: his son served in the navy, his daughter was an air force cadet, and he marched representing his grandfather’s unit.
Veteran and former longtime Fitzroy AFL player Uncle Ricky Morris said it was a disappointing act.
“Today is unique being Anzac Day … where a lot of our ancestors and descendants fought for our country, and when they came back home from service, they were treated differently,” Morris said.
“[The people who disrupted Friday’s Welcome to Country] need to go back and have a good hard look at themselves, because it’s not OK, and it’s very disrespectful, not only for my people, Aboriginal people, but also many other of parts of the Australian community that have served this country.”
The Anzac Day disruptions are the latest in a series of stunts by far-right agitators during the federal election campaign.
“The actions of a handful were completely disrespectful to the Aboriginal community, veterans, and the spirit of Anzac Day. In response, the spontaneous applause from the 50,000-strong crowd attending the service drowned out those who disrupted, and showed the respect befitting of the occasion,” he said in a statement.
Co-chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria Rueben Berg and Ngarra Murray reiterated the service of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“We stand in solidarity with Bunurong elder, Uncle Mark Brown, and acknowledge his strength and resolve during the disruption,” they said in a statement.
AFL legend Eddie Betts (centre) took to the field with the Fitzroy Stars in Melbourne on Friday.Credit: Justin McManus
On Friday afternoon, spectators at the MCG for the traditional Anzac Day AFL clash between Collingwood and Essendon loudly applauded Wurundjeri elder Uncle Colin Hunter’s pre-game Welcome to Country and his tribute to those who served in the armed forces.
In Melbourne’s north, AFL legend Eddie Betts joined the Fitzroy Stars for a local footy comeback on Friday.
Asked about the disruption at the Shrine, Betts said it was disappointing. “[It shouldn’t happen] in this day and age,” he said. “But we’ll continue to educate, [we’ll] continue to speak out.”
With Roy Ward, Nick Newling and Jesinta Burton
Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.
