Traditional owners who perform a welcome to country in Broken Hill will no longer be paid for their time, after a snap decision made by the council in National Reconciliation Week that Wilyakali Aboriginal Corporation said caused “distress, deflation and trauma”.
The motion was put forward by Broken Hill’s mayor, Tom Kennedy, at a meeting in the last week of May and supported eight votes to two. Kennedy defended the decision on ABC local radio, saying “why do we need to be welcomed to our own land?”
