Uncle Jeremy Saunders talks about MidCoast Council welcome to country vote 7.2.25

Manning River Times

On February 5, 2025, MidCoast Council voted on not allowing welcome to country or acknowledgement of country at any MidCoast events or meetings. Biripi man Uncle Jeremy Saunders talks about the result.

Transcript

00:00I come from the mountains, I travel to the sea, across my country, across Burupai country.

00:18I come here today to support my people, my community, my father.

00:26As a nation we feel that this has been really difficult on us, as a people it puts us down

00:34and makes you feel really bad.

00:37This is our country, this is the land that we live in, this is the land we come from.

00:42The motion to get rid of acknowledgement of country and welcome to country at any Mid

00:48Coast events and meetings did not get through, how did that make you feel?

00:52I felt awesome, I felt like there's an opportunity now to reconnect, to regrow, to come together

01:00as a stronger community.

01:03Some of the things that were said about divisiveness and separation and one mob being over the

01:08other, that's not what welcome to country is about, it's about love, it's about acceptance,

01:14it's about living together and appreciating the beautiful place that we are in.

01:20And to hear the sounds of our country through language when it's spoken in welcome is awesome

01:25and it's unique and it's beautiful, it's something we should all celebrate.

01:30The beauty of our land and the country and the language that it comes from is celebration

01:36in words, in song, and if we could learn that and share that I think that would be a great

01:41start for us to appreciate and start to begin to learn the language of the country where we live.

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