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Welcome to Country

American  

noun

plural

Welcome to Countries, Welcomes to Country

  1. a land acknowledgment ceremony performed in Australia before many public events, in which a greeting is offered by a representative of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander group indigenous to the area where the event is taking place.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The ceremony was opened by a First Nations Elder, Aunty Violent Sheridan, who made a traditional Welcome to Country, and remembered Queen Elizabeth as a mother and grandmother.

From Reuters • Sep. 22, 2022

Fast forward 70 years and the King's proclamation ceremony in Canberra started with an Indigenous Welcome to Country ceremony, as is commonplace for events now.

From BBC • Sep. 12, 2022

Following that, Uncle John Graham gives a Welcome to Country after talking about his people’s ancestral lands.

From The Guardian • Sep. 15, 2018

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.