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The Melbourne Storm have been heavily criticised by Indigenous groups, with the club accused of cancelling a Welcome to Country ceremony before their Anzac Day clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs at the last minute.
According to The Age, Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy was told midway through an on-field dance rehearsal from Indigenous performers at AAMI Park that there would be no Welcome to Country ceremony, with Storm CEO Justin Rodski allegedly telling her it was a board decision.
As a result, the two groups set to perform on Friday night pulled out in solidarity, with Murphy saying she was ‘dumbfounded’ by the snub.
She later told the ABC that it was particularly ‘hurtful’ as she had planned to wear her veteran father’s medals during the ceremony.
The call came mere hours after neo-Nazis were slammed for interrupting Melbourne’s Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Shrine of Memembrance by booing the ceremony’s Welcome to Country, performed by Bunurong elder Mark Brown.
In response, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the booing as ‘abhorrent, un-Australian, and disgraceful’.
“There is no place in Australia for what occurred in Melbourne,” Mr Albanese said in a statement.
“A neo-Nazi disrupting Anzac Day is abhorrent, un-Australian, and disgraceful. The people responsible must face the full force of the law.”
Murphy told the masthead that the Storm later apologised and backflipped on their stance, asking her to conduct the ceremony and the two First Nations groups to perform, but were rejected.
“We would dearly love to be out there, but they’ve broken our hearts,” Murphy told The Age.
“We want to rebuild our relationship. We want to make them [understand] that this was wrong, hurtful, deceitful and tokenistic.
“But we want to help look after our communities in the NRL and the current players for Storm too.”
Djirri Djirri, one of the dance groups who boycotted the Storm in solidarity with Murphy, released a statement saying they felt ‘very disrespected’ by the club’s decision.
“We arrived at 2:30pm [at AAMI Park] and have been in and out of the change room to rehearse. It has been raining all day and we have multiple babies and kids with us waiting in the rain,” the statement reads.
“After our final rehearsal we were approached by Melbourne Storm’s CEO [Rodski] saying they are so grateful to have us all dancing together, but tonight the board doesn’t feel comfortable having a Welcome to Country because of what happened in regards to the booing of Uncle Mark Brown at ANZAC Dawn Service.
“They also were ‘happy’ for us to still dance to represent the ‘Welcome’.
“We were in shock and disbelief. Aunty Joy, a senior Wurundjeri elder was told she could not do a welcome on her OWN country, which devastated her as she wanted to honour her father who fought for our country in WWI.
“We had a yarn earlier amongst ourselves about staying strong and brave today as it is a lot, to be Blak on our own country. We spoke with the CEO and executives with all of us about how we felt and there was anger, hurt and tears cried.
“They came back after that discussion and apologised but after reconsidering we all came to the decision to boycott. We strongly regard this as being totally tokenistic and goes completely against their journey of reconciliation & feel very disrespected.
“We stand with and follow the directions of our staunch elders.
“What we do isn’t a performance it’s cultural ceremony and protocol. We strongly feel this action was unnecessary and has caused hurt and disbelief in what we thought was a good relationship with Melbourne Storm.
“We wanted to be commemorating today with pride but instead it was pain.”
Lead dancer Ky-ya Nicholson Ward told The Age that ‘after being disrespected, we couldn’t then go forward with a smile on our face and act’.
Another dancer, Kathleen Terrick, told the ABC that they declined an offer by the Storm to perform without Murphy.
“When it comes to our elders, we are not going to stand by and let our elders be disrespected,” she said.
Responding on Friday evening, Storm chairman Matt Tripp said the cancellation was due to a misunderstanding, with the board having only approved a Welcome to Country ceremony for the NRL’s Multicultural and Indigenous rounds.
“We weren’t sure it was happening in this game, and when we asked the question, there was a bit of confusion,” Tripp told The Age.
Tripp also condemned the ‘disgraceful’ Dawn Service booing, and said the Storm board would consider including a Welcome to Country in future Anzac Day matches.
The Storm have previously had to deny reports the club plans to scrap Welcome to Country ceremonies, releasing a statement late last year.
In contrast, at the MCG, Wurundjeri elder Uncle Colin Hunter jnr performed a Welcome to Country before Collingwood’s annual Anzac Day clash with St Kilda, which received warm applause.
“I particularly want to pay my respects to everyone gathered this afternoon. I’d also like to acknowledge the women and men who have served this country and pay my deepest respects to them,” Hunter said as part of the ceremony.
The Welcome to Country ceremony has proved a controversial talking point in recent years as they have grown more commonplace before sporting matches and other public events, partly due to a false belief that the ceremony is literally welcoming people to the country of Australia.
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