Indigenous people speak about Country like they would speak about a family member; they sing to Country, long for Country, worry about and care for Country.
Just like offering a guest to your home a welcoming cup of tea, the Aboriginal Welcome to Country is an invitation to share in the culture of a place.
Connection to homelands and the protocols that exist to maintain them are fundamental to the identity of Aboriginal people. The Welcome to Country is an important cultural protocol that embodies these beliefs. It recognises, celebrates and respects the responsibility that the traditional owners have in caring for the land and acknowledges the people that come to it meaningfully.
Women preparing Piruwa tea at Kiwirrkurra, depicts women sitting together at the rock holes – the traditional women’s site in her country. They are drinking tea made from Piruwa flowers.
Piruwa (Hakea divaricata), or Fork-leafed Corkwood, is a shrub or small tree in the Proteaceae family found in central and northern Australia. The shrub bares striking golden-yellow-green nectar-rich flowers in winter. The seeds are eaten straight from the tree, and the nectar is either sucked straight from the flowers, or the flowers are steeped in a billy can (cooking pot) to make a sweet, blackish-coloured tea.
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Yalti Napangati
THE COLLECTION
