Welcome Ceremony Gone To The Dogs
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday January 26, 2007
AMONG the very best Australia Day functions are the morning ceremony in the Royal Botanic Gardens and any of the citizenship ceremonies around the country.
Woggan-ma-gule is staged by the first Australians near where the First Fleeters came ashore and sowed seeds of hope.It honours the past and celebrates the present.The Governor, Marie Bashir, said last year: "None of us can come to this sacred site without thinking of the feelings of the first Australians when they looked up and saw the extraordinary ships."If the gardens ceremony honours the first Australians, the citizenship gatherings celebrate the latest. The historian Ken Inglis, initially sceptical about the emerging nationalism, said: "What softens me is the very moving citizenship ceremony, where people from all over the world come to pledge their allegiance to Australia. They don't have to turn up, but they do, and they cherish the native trees they receive. There's a spontaneity about all this."See one today, but keep an eye on the flags. In a Hyde Park ceremony last year, a pitbull owned by a man carrying a flag attacked a Great Dane, forcing police to use capsicum spray and spreading alarm among the new citizens.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald