West Ham United were honoured to be Welcomed to Country by Noongar statesperson Dr Richard Walley OAM.
The Noongar have inhabited the south-west corner of what is now Western Australia for at least 45,000 years. In keeping with the essential elements of their traditional protocols, visitors crossing into their Country must be granted permission to enter and are then given a traditional Welcome offering them safe passage and protection of their spiritual being during the journey.
Dr Walley welcomed David Moyes, his squad and staff at Macedonia Park, the home stadium of NPL Western Australia club Stirling Macedonia, which will play host to the Irons’ training sessions during the Club’s week-long stay in Perth, on Thursday morning.
Dr Walley was joined by dancers and a didgeridoo player, who performed a ceremony that the Hammers showed great respect and gave formal thanks for.
“The ceremony is something that has been going on for two to three thousand generations, where when someone goes to someone else's country, they open up the portals to that spirituality and that country so they are safe spiritually while they are there,” explained Dr Walley, who is one of Australia's leading Aboriginal performers, writers and campaigners for the Indigenous cause, and who has performed previously at the Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Abbey in London and all over the world.
“We have three levels of spirituality - if you are safe spiritually, then you become safe emotionally, then the physical safety follows that in the end. It's by request and never by demand. People request a welcome and that's a sign of respect for who we are, where we are and what we stand for, and our response to that is that we accept and repay that respect by saying that you come with good intent and we bless you and make you be safe, and more importantly take you safely back to your families and your homes.
“All of our Welcomes are holistic. When you celebrate and share your culture, you dance and sing, so our song and dance will take anyone from anywhere in the world on a journey. We have handed them down for many generations and they help us tell our story, so they are fantastic.”
Dr Walley also explained the story of his people, the Noongar nation, who have lived on this land for thousands of years and are split into 14 different states across what is now the south-west corner of Western Australia, and related their story to sport.
“My people are the Noongar, and this state is Whadjuk, and within your states you have regions, and within regions you have your locations, and tribalism from across the world is exactly the same, with countries, states and regions.
“Football clubs understand that, because that's pure tribalism and wanting to represent your turf and be the best, so that tribalism in a passive sense is what we're all about. We are a club, in a league, and associated with other clubs around the world - and we are one of the oldest clubs around in the world.”
Thursday’s session saw supporters from all over Australia and beyond welcomed to Macedonia Park to watch the players in action, with fan groups from Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne all in attendance.
Stirling Macedonia have historic links to West Ham, too. Late striker Dylan Tombides, who sadly passed away in 2014 at the age of 20, having been diagnosed with testicular cancer three years previously, was born in Perth and played for the club as a schoolboy before moving to England with his family as a teenager.
The club’s current manager, Ian Ferguson, is a former Rangers and Scotland international midfielder who was a teammate of West Ham’s assistant coach Billy McKinlay when the latter made his Scotland debut in Malta in 1993.
In addition to training in Stirling, a northern suburb of Perth, West Ham will play two pre-season matches at the city’s 65,000-capacity Optus Stadium in the eastern suburb of Burwood, tackling A-League side Perth Glory on Saturday 15 July and Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday 18 July, with both matches kicking-off at 6pm local time (11am in the UK). A Welcome to Country will take place before each fixture. Tickets for both games are on sale now here.
The squad will also attend a variety of events in the local community, spreading the West Ham Way to Australia on just the Club’s second visit to the country, following a four-match centenary tour in 1995.
