Yesterday was an historic day in Australia Day. The new Government, headed up by Kevin Rudd, made it one of their first jobs in office to give an official apology to the Aboriginal community for their treatment by successive governments regarding the forcible removal of indigenous children from their families to foster homes and institutions. In the astoundingly arrogant belief that these children would be better off with white families or in children's homes, they were removed from their parents, sometimes as babies but often as older children. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that these children experienced unimproved life outcomes in terms of education, addiction, suicide and life expectancy than those who were able to stay with their parents. The studies also revealed that many of these children were treated as slaves within their foster homes, subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse and never recovered from the experience. These acts took place from the beginning of the 20th century until the 1970s.
Of course, the apology is long overdue. The previous Government refused to say sorry, on the grounds that it was not responsible for these atrocities, which has ignited an interesting debate on historical responsibility. However, the new Government has taken the view that the apology is not about blame and responsibility, but about reconciliation. They have combined it with an undertaking to improve life expectancy, educational achievement and other disadvantages to the Aboriginal community, and it does very much feel like a new day has dawned.
All schools watched the broadcast, and many workplaces paused in their schedules to join in and there are calls to turn the day into a National Sorry Day public holiday.
Sometimes it really is just such a relief to say you're sorry.....
To read the text of the apology, follow this link:
4 comments:
I saw some coverage of this on UK tv and was amazed to hear an interview with a farmer who still thought that Aborigines would be better off being 'educated' and why would they not want to live in a 'white' household and stop living in the dirt and eating grubs or some such words. Totally extraordinary! Hope this is the start of better things to come.
Watched this with great interest...
I was thinking though, and I've been thinking about this a lot, what with all the emphasis these days on governments apologising (or not apologising) for this and that atrocity....
I listened to a really fascinating programme on R4 about this a while ago, and I think there was a book about it, which I am now determined to track down. The programme was about the concept of apologising, and how the concept of this only existed in some societies and was meaningless in others.
Many non-European/Western based societies think that apologies are totally meaningless, and that terrible events can only be responded to with shame or vengeance (for example).
I think it's important for the Aussie government to say something. But maybe in this instance it's to say "we acknowledge the nation is ashamed, and we will enter a period of reconciliation and behave differently in the future". (or something).
What I think I'm trying to say is, sometimes sorry isn't enough. Sometimes "sorry" belittles the experience to something that can be put right with an apology. These things can't be put right, there can only be a commitment to behave differently in the future.
The thing is, sorry isn't the hardest word at all. It can be a cop-out, can't it.
You are so right Lucy - sorry can be so easy (as evidenced by the behaviour of my own children who believe that its utterance rights any wrong) and ultimately meaningless. I think that what was really important about the apology here is that it was also an acknowledgement that these things happened, and that they could not be excused by explanations that it was for the best etc etc. And also that the apology is combined with a real effort to improve the lives of Aboriginals, with a bi-partisan 'war cabinet' working together to do this. It will be interesting to see how this all develops, and whether over time, it will make the apology really meaningful...
I heard an interview of an Aboriginal woman living in the UK, she has spent most of her adult life looking for her mother and on finding her, she found that her mother had died 2 years before! Neighbours recounted her mother never got over heving ALL her children removed. This woman does not know where to begin to find her brothers and sisters! The government has been no help and she said that there are officials who cannot recognise that a crime was committed. Having come from a country where apartheid was the official stance and destroyed a country for 40 years, how dissapointing to find that other countries were doing the same! Not sure how you reconciliate this as there were no records kept as to where these children came from or went to. Aboriginal are a fascinating people with a long rich cultural heritage( studied these people in social anthropology major) and the people of Australia decided to pay the Aboriginal people in alcohol instead of money and today you still find whole communities with alcohol syndrome and now they are considered not able to learn, babies are born alcohol dependent and so we see a sure depletion of community, family and the belief system, which is very strong amongst Aboriginal people. What a large price the third world people have paid to first world countries, governments and their people!
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