Welcome to Country: Geographical valuations and devaluations of First Nations’ presence on Country in Australia

Abstract

First Nations’ custodianship of Country has provided incalculable benefits to Australia. Geographical devaluation of this custodianship has been central to settler colonial and later governmental economic and development policy that worked/s to remove First Nations from Country. Indeed, the negation of First Nations sovereignties to extract value from the environment for non-Indigenous dividends underpins the development and operation of state-directed economic activity in Australia. As a result, how First Nations are valued, or not, is tied to cultural, political and economic ideas about First Nations’ presence on Country. Welcome to Country ceremonies exemplify the complexities associated with geographical valuations of First Nations’ presence. Such ceremonies incentivise labour demands for Elder and older First Nations to enact language and culturally specific custodianship even as broader non-Indigenous institutions are hostile to self-determined development and Indigenous sovereignties. The article provides a theoretical account of the geographical valuations and modelling tendencies with respect to First Nations economic development that focus on the state as the key interlocutor. Where scholarship draws attention to the role of the state as recognising the cultural rather than economic dimension of First Nations activities, Welcome to Country ceremonies demonstrate the importance of regional and local scales of First Nations sovereign practices. First Nations and Elder capacities to perform these ceremonies are both a normalised and under-considered element of regional development activities. Welcome to Country constitutes an important case site for understanding the complex interactions between First Nations axiologies and non-Indigenous geographical valuations.