Carlton Supporters Club

Most folks can do without the Welcome to Country.
They can do without the National Anthem.
They show amazing restraint....
They just want the footy to start.

A Welcome to Country ceremony will set you back $730.00.

For an organisation like Storm or the AFL, that's petty cash.  In fact, the fireworks they set off after a try probably cost significantly more.

I don't give a stuff what the websites claim, that published fee is a 10th of what I've been told it really costs directly from a person who writes the cheque / does the transfer, and that direct cost excludes things like the compliance cost clubs must bear to get people and sometimes the fire of a smoking ceremony onto the playing surface.

Clubs get hit with travel, subsistence, accommodation, pretty much every junket fee you can imagine.

It cost just short of $3000 to have a Welcome Ceremony held at our local suburban footy final, $730 is dead-set taking the piss! The ceremony was conducted in Melbourne SE, and the person doing the welcome came from Warrnambool, don't ask me how that works but it feels like a footy funded family reunion!

On an aside, I've a builder mate who had to have his property development approved by the local indigenous council. They charge a lot just to walk up to a tree then walk off and state it's sacred land, FFS the tree they identified was a remnant from a Christmas tree farm! Then they kindly offered to performed some sort of cleansing ceremony to allow him to develop the land, that one went to 5 figures, it's a scam! He had enough dollars to fight the claim and won, but many do not, they are held hostage by bureaucracy or fear or retribution. And yes, I'm probably biased but with good reason! btw., Those indigenous council's members involved are now apparently under investigation for a string of alleged corruption, but the local council still did not have enough guts to approve the development without resistance, the legal liability minefield has become a joke! The council brought in another "specialist" to assess the earlier tree claim, and the official answer was "Well, it could be sacred!" All through the challenge, my mate had to walk a woke media minefield, wearing all sorts of labels associated with colonial atrocities of the far distant past.

Of course, some developers try to get around the process (as we saw with the IBAC investigation into Casey) and some Registered Aboriginal Parties haven't acted in good faith as the legislation requires.  RAPs that don't act in good faith can be suspended or banned completely, and the office bearers prosecuted under whatever legislation their organisation is incorporated and/or criminal law.  That has happened three times since 2006 and that's probably way under par when you consider the corruption that is rife among developers, the building industry, local governments and State Government officials.

My work place gets charged for every attendance of every RAP for any reason/purpose. My wife's school contacted the local RAP to come and do something for the kids, they wanted to charge 800 odd dollars but the principal couldn't afford it.
A mate got charged $5900 for a cultural heritage assessment for a 3 townhouse project in the northern suburbs.
I guess it's a business like anything else, good gig if you can get it. My only issue is that in the instances where its forced upon you, the fees are the fees.

If the club did pay someone to come from Warrnambool it wasn't a welcome to country.

The two most abhorrent hourly rate fees I have seen on my current project is RAPs and Fauna Spotters.

My work place gets charged for every attendance of every RAP for any reason/purpose. My wife's school contacted the local RAP to come and do something for the kids, they wanted to charge 800 odd dollars but the principal couldn't afford it.
A mate got charged $5900 for a cultural heritage assessment for a 3 townhouse project in the northern suburbs.
I guess it's a business like anything else, good gig if you can get it. My only issue is that in the instances where its forced upon you, the fees are the fees.

Ignoring all the argy bargy above, the Warrnambool bit strikes some relevance with the fires today, I have friends and family over Grampians way, and if anyone else has them too, I hope that they are all safe and well.

One associate was nearly killed a few years back while fighting fires at The Gap.

Nicholls, Blair, Saunders and Onus!

I think it was in form 2 that our English teacher walked into the classroom with a little black man who proceeded to make the most impassioned plea about his people’s plight and what we could do about it.  I met Pastor Sir Doug many years later and tried to explain how that talk had influenced my life.  Sadly, his dementia was quite advanced and he didn’t understand what I was trying to say.

Harold Blair passed away at a relatively young age but I knew his daughter Nerida. 

I met Reg Saunders once and he was a very impressive man.  There’s a story about an American officer asking Australian troops how they feel about having a black officer and being just a little shocked at their great respect for him.

Bill Onus passed away when I was very young but I do remember watching his “Alcheringa” series of documentaries about Aboriginal culture.

Nice work by your school G2C but it reflects the attitude of the times; honour four outstanding people but don’t listen to their stories.