MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
I acknowledge my privilege in living on land stolen from the Gunaikurnai people in Metung East Gippsland; custodians for 120,000 years of respect and responsibility, care and connection to this place.

My gratitude for being welcomed by the oldest living culture in the world, holds me in obligation to learn, with permission, the humility in being one with country; to learn how to see country with my ears and hear country with my eyes, I acknowledge the Un-learning I need to do in deconstructing the colonising British and European migrant mindset I absorbed in my youth, echoing and ricocheting at every turn, every look.

Allowing silence when walking, so silence speaks, land wind water and everything speaks and is alive.

Arriving in Australia after many cultural experiences throughout Papua New Guinea in 1971, the culture shock I underwent enabled me to reassemble myself through making art at the South Australian School of Art, Adelaide. I acknowledge the power of this land is regenerating my spirit with an obligation to open to, respect and be in conversation with the land in my own backyard, down the Wallaby track or under the city!
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My Acknowledgement of Country

Today I acknowledge that I live on the sacred land of the Gunaikurnai Traditional Owners of Gippsland.

I acknowledge that I came alone to Australia as a British migrant with a cultural history of colonisation to secure the land as ‘ours’.

I acknowledge that I am an occupier and still embedded in colonising beliefs, even though I work continually to free myself from these self delusions based on Terra Nullius which stated that life began after (we) the British arrived!

I acknowledge that my life is built on the struggle of dispossessed others of land, language, food, family, inheritance, shelter, cultural and Traditional Knowledge.

I acknowledge that my cultural forebears continue to deny the fact of genocide and maintain a ‘cult of forgetfulness’ in ‘the great Australian silence’ (Bill Stanner 1968)
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I acknowledge that the pain, grief and loss of land and language that my British forbears were responsible for is reflected in the current Australian identity, of which I am part

I acknowledge, take responsibility for my privilege and will commit to reveal and heal my people’s ignorance, racism and cruelty.

On behalf of myself and my ancestors, I offer my heartfelt apology.
I commit to being open and humble and always respect the knowledge and wisdom of the first peoples of this land
I commit to working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples for self determination and to know about, protect and maintain their sacred lands for the future of our next seven generations

I stand for a future of shared mutual respect and partnership with Indigenous peoples of this country and the world.