Welcome to country ceremonies are commonplace in Australia. The campaign against them is ‘just ugly politicking’, says Aboriginal leader

The Northern Territory chief minister made a deliberate omission at an event last month commemorating the 1942 bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces. In her opening remarks, Lia Finocchiaro acknowledged veterans and the families of those who survived – but not the Larrakia people, on whose land the event was held.

She later told local radio that such gestures, widely made at public gatherings to show respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, had become “tokenistic” and “divisive”.

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