An Indigenous elder has been stopped from performing a Welcome to Country ceremony that she was due to give at a Barack Obama event in Melbourne.
Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin says she was told she was being “too difficult” and was removed from event proceedings just hours before the talk was due to commence, according to the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.
Wandin said she asked the event organisers Growth Faculty to allow her to have a support person accompany her and to provide Obama with a gift according to cultural practice.
But she said she was told the requests were too much.
“They have always shown me respect and accepted my Welcome as a gift from our people,” Wandin said.
NCA Newswire was told the 78-year-old elder was so upset after being removed from proceedings that she had to lie down.
“I have been shocked and distressed by the way I have been treated by event organisers,” she said.
“I am 78 years of age. I have never been treated or spoken to in this way in the past.”
As Senior Aboriginal Elder of the Wurundjeri People, Wandin has welcomed the Queen, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama in past ceremonies.
“The Welcome to Country is a very important ceremony for our people. It is an honour to welcome people like President Obama and I am upset that I am unable to do this today,” she said.
A Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal says it is a “deep offence” to the Wurundjeri people and all First Nations people.
Growth Faculty has been contacted for comment.