A Yamatji man believes now's the time to transform acknowledgement of country from a "box-ticking" exercise to an authentic customised practice.
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The co-founder of Acknowledge This! Rhys Paddick believes communities should 'customise' their speeches to better connect with people and place.
"There's a lot of people today that consider it as like housekeeping like it's a thing that we have to do at the beginning of a thing or at the bottom of an email to show our respect," Mr Paddick said.
The acknowledgement practice encourages people to recognise and pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land before their meetings, gathering or events.
Mr Paddick co-founded Acknowledge This! with Emma Gibbens and they've travelled the country delivering workshops to more than 25,000 people.
They explain the context behind an acknowledgement of country and teach people how it can be personalised.
"Acknowledge This! aspires to help people connect to the concepts that lie behind the words when delivering an acknowledgement of Country," he said.
The most frequent question he is asked is: "What are the words we are supposed to say?".
"It's just moving away from what the words [are] that I think I'm supposed to say and just really creating a sense of presence and going, 'What is it right now in this moment that is relevant to people and place?'," Mr Paddick said.
"Because acknowledging Country at the very core is only about acknowledging people and place."
"There is not a secret cabal of Elders that review and judge every single acknowledgement of Country ever written or spoken by man."
Across the regions: connecting people and place
Cara George completed a two-hour TAFE NSW acknowledgement of country course.
"I wanted to learn the power of a heartfelt acknowledgement of country," Ms George said.
She works in the tourism agency hosting many stakeholder and client meetings with people across Australia.
"Everything we do in tourism is around the land we live on, enjoy and explore," Ms George said
"So, if we don't have a presence as an agency leading and guiding other destinations and tourism businesses to be respectful and respond with responsible tourism activity, then we're not leading the way."
The founder and director of tourism agency Hipscotch lives in Hill End, Wiradjuri Country, an hour away from Bathurst.
"There was some debate around the appropriateness of how to appropriately acknowledge country without it starting to feel like a tokenistic measure and we never wanted that to happen," she said.
"I think more people should do [the training] ...you take more from it than just a business process and more [to] contemplate, reflect, reconnect with the land you're on."
Marlene Even
Journalist at the Illawarra Mercury. Previously a radio and podcast host at 2SER Radio.
Journalist at the Illawarra Mercury. Previously a radio and podcast host at 2SER Radio.
