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Old 14th Feb 2022, 04:31
  #227 (permalink)  
Ascend Charlie
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Great South East, tired and retired
Posts: 4,380
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I watched the graduation ceremony for Murdoch Uni (Perth) the other day. After the usual speeches by the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor, they had an indigenous ceremony. I have sat through these things in Canada and Alaska, and wondered if the people were really having a laugh at our expense - they could dance and sing and do anything they wanted and call it "traditional" and the spectators would not know that they were being ridiculed.

This ceremony had 3 indigenous men, fat (not traditional?) wearing baggy undies, some white paint drawn on their bodies, and they stamped on the stage to the sound of a didgeridoo. It might have been a joke, it might have been serious, who knows. But, just like The King's New Clothes, the crowd clapped politely. It seems to be a necessary thing in these PC days to say something like "we acknowledge that we are on the Oodna-galahbi land and we thank the traditional owners" before having any sort of event.
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