Melbourne Storm have taken responsibility for what they say was an internal miscommunication that meant the Welcome to Country for their Anzac Day clash at AAMI Park was cancelled at the last minute, a situation that has left the chairman “disappointed him beyond words”.
Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy said she had been scheduled to perform the service at AAMI Park last Friday night before the Storm’s clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Performances from First Nations groups were also planned.
Melbourne Storm chairman Matt Tripp says his club has to repair relationships with its Indigenous and First Nations supporter base.Credit: Oscar Colman
But as other Indigenous performers rehearsed on the field, Murphy said she was told by the club’s board that it no longer wanted her to conduct the Welcome to Country. The two other First Nations groups refused to continue their performances as a result.
Storm chairman Matt Tripp said his club had to repair relationships with its Indigenous and First Nations supporter base.
“It has disappointed me beyond words,” Tripp said. “I am acutely aware of the many different cultures and races we have involved in our football club and our supporter base.
Aunty Joy Murphy performed a Welcome to Country ceremony at the Australian Open in January.Credit: Getty Images
“Like I do with anything within the club, I guard that with my life and I want to protect that at all costs.
“To have a miscommunication deem us as non-sensitive to Welcome to Country and beyond that, a part of Australian customs, that has upset me greatly.”
He said the club would “continue to work with Indigenous leaders to make sure there are no miscommunications moving forward, and we look forward to Indigenous round in August”.
A Welcome to Country was delivered before the Storm game in multicultural round (against the New Zealand Warriors) and will take place in Indigenous round in August.
The NRL club had previously declared it would reduce the number of Welcome to Country ceremonies to increase their cultural significance.
At a meeting late last year, the club’s board agreed that Welcome to County ceremonies would occur before “major cultural events”, but what constituted a major cultural event was not explicitly defined.
The club believes the lack of clarity between the board and management was to blame on Friday.
“Once we understood the programming from management, we gave the green light to progress. By then, it was understandably too late for those who had already been informed of our earlier decision,” Tripp said.
Tripp had previously said he was unaware of an incident at the Shrine of Remembrance on Friday morning, when far-right agitators had booed and heckled Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service. But senior club sources said the morning’s incident had not helped the situation on Friday night.
Murphy told ABC Radio Melbourne on Monday that chief executive Justin Rodski initially told her the board’s decision not to include the Welcome to Country was partly because of the disruption at the Shrine of Remembrance that morning, and they wanted to “protect” her.
But Murphy said she was not worried about booing, and the “thunderous applause” when the Welcome to Country was performed at the MCG for the Collingwood-Essendon AFL clash earlier in the day had lifted her spirits.
She said she was not sure if she would work with the Storm again, although she wanted to meet with the board.
“My heart’s really broken so badly,” she said.
Ky-ya Nicholson Ward, from the Wurundjeri female dance group Djirri Djirri that was also set to perform, said she was told of the Welcome to Country cancellation as she rehearsed on the field in the rain.
“Our instant response was shock, kind of disbelief amongst ourselves. And instantly we decided, no, we’re boycotting. This is disrespectful,” Nicholson Ward said.
Rabbitohs players steered clear of the issue when approached for comment on Monday.
This masthead revealed in 2023 that Brett Ralph, a Storm board member and part-owner, donated $75,000 to Advance Australia last financial year through his company, JMR Management Consultancy Services. Advance was the peak group behind the No campaign of the Voice referendum.
A Rugby Australia spokesman said there would be live Welcome to Country ceremonies at every Wallabies Test in 2025.
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