Hey Guys,

Looking to get some insight, particularly from any Australian Social workers.

I'm an "emerging" social worker, completing my Masters in a few last weeks of placement. About me - I'm a mature aged student, with vast lived and professional experience that has seen me pivot to this arena.

I believe I'm a very compassionate, empathetic, yet very realistic individual and feedback from colleagues so far has been that they are excited to see my growth and what I can bring.

BUT... and a big BUT... because its a sensitive issue here in Australia

But the constant Acknowledgement of Country is just going to far. I have just completed a conference in my home town. Over the 4 hour conference, 5 different outreach agencies presented a short overview of their offering.

EACH of them, before they started their presentation, did an "acknowledgment of country". So this means - there was 1 AOC to start the overall presentation... then as each 5 of them presented, 5 acknowledgements... and at the end of the presentation... they had an Indigenous individual from the area provide his own.

Now the indigenous individuals was very good and moving - perhaps we only needed that - but he was also obviously paid to do this, which I'm at a cross roads with.

And lastly - bless her, its nothing personal, but the person who organised the event, cried after the Acknowledgement because she was so moved by it.

Arghhh

I really, really, really connect and understand the deep rooted Australian History - the good and the bad.

But I feel the one arena in which I'm not the best version of myself is this performative act where doing too much

I'm not wishing to offend here and I very genuinely care about this issue. But its just getting out of control and I think, genuinely, not helping anyone at this stage?

Thoughts to share?