Monday, 26 January 2026
Walumil Lawns, Barangaroo
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales

Yvonne, thank you for your Welcome to Country. Thank you also to the Doonooch Dancers for the ceremony you so beautifully conducted at the opening of this important gathering. 

I acknowledge the Gadigal, Traditional Custodians of these lands and waterways, and pay my respects to Gadigal Elders past, present, and emerging, as well as to all Elders across our State and our Nation.  

Premier, Ministers, State and Federal, Leader of the Opposition …[1]

It is part of our Australian mantra that we live in the best country in the world. It is a mantra I fully endorse but in doing so recognise that its meaning must not be jingoistic.  Rather, when we talk about Australia in these terms, it is important that we ask ourselves what we mean.  

That question may, and perhaps should, lead to another, namely how well do we know and understand what makes our country the best and, indeed, the most unique in the world. There are many reasons which readily come to mind – Australia’s First peoples and their ancient culture, the contribution made by those who have come from all parts of the world to make Australia home, our natural beauty, mateship, the opportunities, our democracy and our freedoms. 

However, as we know only too well, this country is not without its scars: it has its natural disasters; it has its tragedies; disruption to our cohesion and disadvantage. 

There can be no question but that these are existential challenges and we should be—indeed, need to be—all the better as a people, as one people, in the way we recognise and respond to them, not only at institutional and governmental levels, but also as individuals.   

It is in responding as individuals that I suggest we should ask those questions that I posed at the beginning. Which brings me to ask another:  What is our sense of ‘country?’.

I’m sure that everyone here today has experienced that exquisite pleasure of walking on the beach with the sand oozing through your toes and the water lapping at your ankles. Some of you may have gazed at the star filled night sky out in the bush or been up early enough to see the stunning reds of our sunrises.  These are quintessential Australian experiences.   

Although, some at least, might not have thought about it in these terms, those experiences, in essence, are experiencing ‘Country’—something which connects us to nature, gives us a sense of what it is to belong.  

The smoking ceremony this morning and Yvonne’s welcome tell of the broader and deeper understanding of “Country” for Indigenous Australians. It is part of being, it is culture, it is ancient learning, and it is belonging.  Disconnection from Country has been both a symptom and a cause of much of First Nation’s peoples’ disadvantage.

The corollary is that connection—or, perhaps more correctly, reconnection to Country is part of the answer to that disadvantage.  The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming that this is so.  Educators know that making connection to Country is central to learning.  Elders, in their wisdom, have always told us that this is so. Their view is affirmed by research undertaken at Curtin University which found that “Indigenous children whose parents promoted a strong sense of cultural identity in early childhood experienced better health and socio-emotional outcomes later in life”. 

Yuat Nyoongar Elder, Associate Professor Michael Wright said those findings “aligned with his own research on the positive mental health benefits of culture and the reclaiming of language, adding that the importance of cultural knowledge extends beyond Indigenous Australians themselves.”[2]   As we have learned, especially through times of natural disasters, that ancient cultural knowledge is part of the survival of our land.

Today, as we leave, let us all open ourselves up to that sense of ‘Country’ recognising that the culture and knowledge of First Nations’ peoples is their strength and it follows, a strength of our Nation. We are, after all, as this ceremony tells us, WugulOra.

 
[1] The Honourable Chris Minns MP, Premier, and Member for Kogarah, Parliament of NSW

The Honourable Penny Sharpe MLC, Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Heritage, Parliament of NSW

The Honourable Stephen Kamper MP, Minister for Lands and Property, Minister for Multiculturalism, Minister for Sport, Minister for Jobs and Tourism, and Member for Rockdale, Parliament of NSW

The Honourable David Harris MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty, Minister for Gaming and Racing, Minister for Veterans, Minister for Medical Research, Minister for the Central Coast, and Member for Wyong, Parliament of NSW

Ms Kellie Sloane MP, Leader of the Opposition, and Member for Vaucluse, Parliament of New South Wales

The Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for Social Services, and Member for Sydney, Commonwealth Parliament
[2] https://research.curtin.edu.au/news/study-finds-indigenous-culture-boosts-childrens-outcomes/