It was a diplomatic rite involving the landholder's hospitality and a ritual exchange of gifts, sometimes referred to as "Freedom of the Bush".
[2] The signing of Batman's Treaty in 1835 was likely to have been interpreted as a tanderrum ceremony by the Wurundjeri and Boon wurrung peoples, according to some historians.
Certainly the Wurundjeri and Boon wurrung people continued to act with hospitality to the settlers in the first years of the Foundation of Melbourne, while other Aboriginal nations engaged in resistance over dispossession of their lands.
[3] William Thomas, the Assistant Protector of Aborigines for the Port Phillip District, described a tanderrum ceremony enacted by the Wurundjeri in 1845.
[citation needed] Tanderrum ceremonies are still performed today by Wurundjeri elders sometimes as part of a Welcome to Country protocol.