The empty words of Health Promotion

Thinking back to my Health Promotion Foundations lecture, another thing that started my mind wandering away from the lecture and it's subject matter was the first words that the lecturer, Jane Gregg, said when she finally started. She acknowledged the traditional owners and it's something that I've never heard any lecturer do this before. Now, I don't want to sound like a racist bigot but people who come into class and start the lecture with "I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners the..." makes the person just sound like they are trying to be overly politically correct. I mean, if I was in somewhere like Scotland at a uni in a region that used to be owned by some clan I wouldn't start my lecture with an acknowledgement of them even if they had been forcibly removed from the area. Not unless, I was trying to present myself as concerned or ashamed about past government policies. The fact that I wasn't alive when they were made and had nothing do do with forcing the previous residents of their land would not make me want to let everyone know how I feel about the situation. Those policies were conducted with the support of the ruling population. It might not be right, it might have been wrong by today's standards, but it was done. There is a point where you have to move on from the past. We should try to rectify poor past decisions but empty words such as those I heard today, do little but trivialise the issues. That's what I felt the lecturers words were. Empty. By the way she said it you could tell that it was just a formality for her in showing that she was politically correct and nothing more.