Indigenous elder removed from Barack Obama event for being ‘too difficult’

An Indigenous elder has been barred from giving the welcome to country at a speaking event by the former US president Barack Obama after organisers told her she was being "too difficult".

Aunty Joy Murphy was scheduled to welcome Obama to Wurundjeri land before the event in Melbourne on Wednesday night on the latest leg of his speaking tour of Australia.

But she was allegedly removed by the event's organisers, Growth Faculty, after she asked them to provide a support person to help her at the event at John Cain Arena and also asked them to provide Obama with a gift in line with cultural practice.

In a statement, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation said: "She was told that she was being 'too difficult' and was removed from event proceedings.

"This is a deep offence to the Wurundjeri people and to all First Nations people.

"Our Welcome to Country protocols are our traditional law and practice that have been used to welcome and offer protection to our guests on Wurundjeri lands for millennia."

Aunty Joy, 78, who has welcomed dignitaries including Nelson Mandela and the Queen, said she was shocked at the way she had been treated.

"They have always shown me respect and accepted my Welcome as a gift from our people," Aunty Joy told the National Indigenous Times. "I have been shocked and distressed by the way I have been treated by event organisers.

"I am 78 years of age. I have never been treated or spoken to in this way in the past. I do not want this to be a reflection on President Obama. I am a leader of the Wurundjeri Nation. I asked to be treated as an equal."

Growth Faculty has been contacted for comment.