'Neo-nazis' boo Welcome to Country address at Melbourne Anzac Day dawn service

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In short:
Political leaders have condemned booing and heckling during the Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service.

The Welcome to Country by Gunditjmara man Uncle Mark Brown was met with boos and jeers by members of the crowd.

Police interviewed a 26-year-old man over the incident.

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Political leaders have condemned hecklers who booed Indigenous Australians at Melbourne's Anzac Day dawn service.

About 50,000 had gathered at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance on Friday morning for the dawn service.

But the solemn mood of the event was broken during a Welcome to Country address given by Bunurong and Gunditjmara man Uncle Mark Brown, when members of the crowd began to jeer and heckle.

Some hecklers demanded the Welcome to Country be stopped, but were drowned out by applause from the rest of the gathered crowd.

Police were later seen escorting prominent neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant away from the service.

In November, Hersant was the first Victorian found guilty of performing an illegal Nazi salute in public and was sentenced to one month behind bars.

The ABC understands a group of far-right extremists were present at the Shrine.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-25/melbourne-anzac-day-welcome-to-country-hecklers/105215124

Fucking Nazi scumbags. I'm shocked that one wasn't wearing their obligatory masks to stop the White Rose Society from identifying them and outing them. This was soooo disrespectful on dual levels. One, to the memory of those who fell fighting the Nazis so fuckwits like him could disrupt a solemn ceremony. And two, to Uncle Mark Brown. He was dignified and didn't let them get to him. I would have jumped off the stage and punched the shit out of them.

On edit: Came back to say two things.

1. There are rumours round Canberra that there were attempts by pro-Palestinian protesters to disrupt the dawn service at the War Memorial. I haven't seen anything to confirm it yet, and hope it's not true, but the Anzac dawn service is not the time or place to protest about anything.

2. For any Americans reading who aren't familiar with Welcome To Country, it's not welcoming listeners to Australia. Just like Uncle Mark Brown isn't listeners Uncle. From Wiki: 'A Welcome to Country is a ritual or formal ceremony performed as a land acknowledgement at many events held in Australia. It is an event intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to the descendants of a particular Aboriginal clan or language group who were recognised as the original human inhabitants of the area. For the Welcome to be recognised as official, it must be performed by a recognised elder of the group.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Country