**2. Acknowledgement of Country—Acknowledging Context**

#### *2.1. Acknowledging Indigenous Context*

As Howitt [32] recognizes, in Australian Indigenous settings, a 'Welcome to Country' is a custom among many Aboriginal groups to assess the bona fides of visitors and ensure their safe passage in Country. That custom is now extended to include Traditional Owners giving a welcome to non-Indigenous groups at the start of a speech or an event. Arising from the growth of the reconciliation process there is also an increasingly common use of an 'Acknowledgement of Country', which can be used by anyone–Indigenous and non-Indigenous–to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land at the start of a speech or event [33]. Acknowledgment rituals are structured as affirming recognition of the entitlement and belonging of Indigenous persons or groups to a place, typically by an outsider. While the Acknowledgment is a matter of appreciation, or a declaration made to ensure validity, the Welcome has a classic host–guest structure. A host is normally someone who has an entitlement or belonging within a domain to which the guest is admitted. The host is to be respected but is also morally bound to extend hospitality to the guests. An Acknowledgment may be made by someone without direct address to those understood to be acknowledged, and without reciprocation; a Welcome frames both parties as participants of the event (Merlan [34] p. 298). There is no doubt that some elements of Welcome (such as smoking and dance) have long been in use among groups of Indigenous Australians, but most Australians realize that both ritual forms have become part of public protocol in the recent past. The two rituals started coming into public use during the 1990s, as a form of recognition during the reconciliation decade (see Merlan [34] pp. 299–302).

As a Taiwanese visitor to Australia, the Acknowledgement of Country for me, is very much about acknowledging connections–the connections that encompass people-to-environment, people-to-people and people-to-Cosmos relations [35,36]. This paper addresses the methodological challenges of working with Indigenous peoples by starting with a positionality of recognizing and acknowledging *Tayal* custodianship of Country. Therefore, I would like to acknowledge *Tayal* people and their Country and offer my appreciation of the opportunity to work with and learn from them, and acknowledge the entitlement that accompanies Indigenous *Tayal* peoples' belonging to place and aim to emplace the following discussion in the specific context where knowledge are generated.
