Sorry
Feb 13th, 2008 Print this
Today, as one of the first items of new government business in Parliament, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will table an apology motion to Indigenous people. He will apologise for the effects of previous government policies that caused suffering to Indigenous Australians, particularly the policy to forcibly remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their parents.
If I look at the opportunities that my kids have, compared to the opportunities of the average Indigenous child, it’s obvious that inequities of the past continue into Australian society today.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics ( 3302.0 - Deaths, Australia, 2006 ) the average boy born 1996 - 2001 can expect to live 75.2 - 77 years. For Indigenous kids, a boy born 1996 - 2001 can expect to live 59.4 years.
Mark Bin Bakar, Western Australia’s Australian of the Year for 2008, eloquently expressed the Aboriginal point of view on 26 May 2006 during National Sorry Day - a day when Australians decided that they were sick of waiting for the previous government to say sorry, so decided to do it for themselves, Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation Chairperson’s Speech.
Here’s what was just tabled:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology motion has been tabled in Parliament:
Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.
I have an uncomfortable feeling about institutional apologies, as they perpetuate the ill conceived notion that organizations have the same attributes as people… are trustworthy, or not, have compassion, or not, seek justice, or not. These notions lead us astray more often than guide us to truth.
Reading this statement, though, I found it eloquent and hopeful and full of leadership (which *IS* an attribute of governance… or not). It acknowledges wrong, expresses a people’s ideals, and articulates a future worthy of a great and heterogeneous people.
I wish all of my Australian friends every success in achieving it.
I think the speech does nothing other than promote the victim mentality and make some white kids feel good for a day. You don’t get “spiritually healed” or the ability to “move on” after some convulted human-made construct known as “government” apologises for the actions of some other government. This is more nonsense than I can handle in one day to be honest.
Hi Stuart. I think this is one of the reasons the last government refused to say sorry, along with fear of litigation if “sorry” could be construed as accepting responsibility.
I’ve been trying to address the “institutional apology” issue you raise and going around in ever decreasing circles of logic until I have no more logic left.
I’ve concluded that it’s obviously within the legal power of the Australian Parliament qua Parliament (not individual members acting together) to make an apology like this. It must therefore involve the same kind of legal fiction that allows a corporation to be a “legal person”. The apology isn’t attributing human qualities like remorse to the Parliament ..but is much more ceremonial…
This view does, of course, substantially weaken the apology.
There seems to be no easy answer. Don’t apologise and you are constantly criticised like the previous government. Do apologise and you are only making a token gesture at best.
Hi Bob, I got more out of the speech than you did. To me it is a strongly worded official attempt to acknowledge at the highest level that white people damaged the lives of Indigenous Australians.
Nothing can heal or atone for the utter devastation that was caused, and every action will be inadequate in the face of the injustice that happened.
I think that the apology was done in the spirit of trying to do the best that could be done, and reflected the desires of many of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who lobbied for it.
I feel strongly with Kathryn on this, and I found the formal apology very moving. Two things stand out to me as one-liner replies to Stuart and Bob above - first, an institution is made up of real people and can be as good as its people; secondly, to see how many Aboriginal people were deeply moved by the apology cermenony is an answer in itself, to my mind - it sank home, it alllowed thos aboriginal people to begin to be spiritually healed….
Liz
Hmm OK I have seen the light.
But wait, didn’t John Howard acknowledge the same thing but just didn’t use the word ’sorry’? From what I read, the entire argument was that his speech was not good enough because the Aboriginal people said that ’sorry’ was a special word to them, despite the fact that sincere regret expresses the same emotional aspect of the word. That is what alerted my suspicions of compensation as the main goal, and these claims now seem to be surfacing.