Feb 13
An Apology a Long Time Coming: Australia Says Sorry.
Magneto Bold Too summed up today - the day that Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, made a parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generations - very well…
For my overseas readers, the Stolen Generations are those indigenous children the “white” Australians literally tore from the arms of their parents over decades, never to be returned. They were clothed, and fed, and “educated”. And stripped of their family, their heritage, their language and their culture. For their own protection. The fact that at least 17% of the girls and 8% of the boys experienced sex crimes while in the care of the government and the churches and “charitable” white families gives us a very clear picture of the quality of that “protection”.
Of course, it wasn’t just the children who were stolen, and had something stolen from them: Entire peoples were victims of this abuse.
Yes. I’m comfortable calling it what it was: Racist abuse.
I’m not interested in the arguments made about “good intentions”. (Brendan Nelson: You made a grave error of judgement.) The nature of those intentions are evident in the acts and the results of those acts, whether they were committed in ignorance or not. For some things, ignorance is not an excuse. And it cannot be claimed as one on a scale such as this.
I cannot tell their stories for them. I do not have the right and they have been doing that for themselves for a long time now, most of it without being heard. Most of it while being ignored or subjected to attacks from those unwilling to accept the faults of the past, adding more and more failures of humanity to our history.
Today, Kevin Rudd called it a “stain upon our souls”.
I don’t know what a soul is supposed to be, but I feel it as a stain, even though I was not born here, even though I was born after these crimes “officially” ended. I have felt ashamed of our history since I learned of it. I have felt ashamed that it is something I learned only as an adult. And while John Howard was in power, I am proud to say that I was ashamed to be an Australian.
I’m not very old but while I was being educated in Australian schools, Australian history consisted of the First Fleet and bushrangers and Federation and diggers. These dark facts were not given to me until I went to university and I was very aware that meant many others who went on to study in other fields were never told the truth by those who had a responsibility to do so.
As a child and a teenager, I had a strong social conscience. I carried around a tattered copy of “I have a dream…”; I had anti-apartheid posters on my walls. And all that time, I never knew what had happened in my own backyard, not just during the period of the Stolen Generations, but since settlement.
When I learned of it, I was appalled, and furious at the education system which had failed me. I can only hope that the curriculum has improved since then. I do not want my son raised in the same self-satisfied and blinded atmosphere I was. A past so heinous needs to be addressed, if not by those who created it, then by those who are its inheritors.
So this was me in the 90s, wearing my reconciliation armband; the armband which sold out within a day of appearing on the shelves at The Body Shop because I was not alone in my sentiments. Below me was Nicole Kidman, a “glamorous activist” fighting for the same thing I was. I marched for Land Rights, for The Wik Decision, for the Amendment to the Native Title Act. I read and I watched and I argued and I cried.
In the scheme of things, did that mean anything?
I look at it now and see a white girl who came to this country and was granted all the rights of a citizen without question. I look at it and see a white girl who will never be able comprehend the enormity of the pain that was caused to the people she wanted to stand up for. I look at it now and see a pretty white girl in the newspaper when faces other than hers should have been seen, when voices other than hers should have been heard.
But I cried today when that symbolic act took place. I cried to hear, finally, an official apology which was unequivocal and made no excuses. I cried to see someone stand up and speak the truth on behalf of all of us who have wanted it spoken for so long. Not because it expatiates our history’s wrongs, not because it absolves us of our guilt, but simply because, as Cathy Freeman said, “It is the right thing to do.”
I’m very sure that for some members of the Stolen Generations, and some of those effected by the policies of successive Australian governments and the behaviour of generations of white settlers, the words spoken today will mean little. And that’s fine. Victims of abuse are not required to forgive and forget. For others, they might find a little peace in finally hearing words of acknowledgement which have been so long in coming and I am glad of that.
But the shame of our county’s past, and the stain upon my “soul”, will not be washed away until our indigenous children stop dying, until our indigenous people live long and full lives, until our indigenous people have the same access to the healthcare and education and services we enjoy and they are free to make their own choices about using them, not just in law but in fact.
This apology which is so long overdue… It’s a beginning.
What Others Are Saying…
- Dances To The Beet Of Her Own Drum: Sorry
- A Roaming Aussie Mum: Sorry
- Magneto Too Bold: Sorry
- Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum: Apology Day
- Even In A Little Thing: 13th February
- All For Women: Sorry
- Pomgirl: Sorry
- SnakyPoet: Sorry Day
- Multifarious Mushrooms: Sorry day in Australia, 13th February, 2008
- Chris Barnes: Sorry
- Occasional Vague Ramblings: Sorry
- Booked Inn: Preparing For Sorry
- Random Thoughts & Images: Saying Sorry
- Stuff With Thing: Sorry
- Beware the Creeper: Sorry
- The Museum of Vestigial Office Technology: Sorry
- The Stopped Clock: Sorry
- World Con Cavalcade: Sorry
- Despite All The Rage I Am Still Just A Rat In A Cage: Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
- Girlie Jones: Today We Are Sorry
- Corporate Engagement: A wonderful day in Australia, I come to bury John Howard
- Penguin Unearthed: Sorry
- Personal Political: The Apology”
- Sorrow At Sills Bend: They said it
- Creativity/Machine: After the Apology
- Shelf Life: Sorry
- Get Shouty: Sorry Day
- Servant Of Chaos: Sorry
- Joh Blogs: The Apology
- What Are We Doing Today, Brain?: Sorry
- Scarlet Words: I’m Sorry
- SultanaBlog: The Apology
- Filtered: The day when “sorry” mattered
- The Body Shop Activist: A New Beginning
- Public Polity: This Whole Sorry Business
- My Big World of Crap: Sorry
- Imaginif: Chalk pathways to community healing for stolen Aboriginal children
Anyone who I have missed, please leave a link to your post about the apology in the comments or send it to me via my contact form and I will add it to the list.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I didn’t write about the apology but I think just about all of the Aussie blog posts I read today via my reader did. I agree with Magneto Bold Too!
February 13th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Bravo..I agree a long time coming, may the healing now begin.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Camilla Percy from Public Polity posted a brilliant original poem today.
It really spoke to me, and reminded me that we’re all complicit and responsible for the current state of Indigenous Australia.
Definitely worth checking out.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:53 am
[…] session with an official apology to the Stolen Generation [BBC]. The Cerebral Mum wrote a great blog post on her views on this topic and also did a good roundup of what the Australian blogosphere has to say about it. No Comments so far Leave a […]
February 14th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Wow. Thanks for writing this. I am from the US and have never heard about this at all (says a lot for American history classes, huh?) Sounds very similar to the US policy fo rounding up Japanese-Americans and putting them in internment camps. Appalling really.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:19 am
A wonderful post, giving me some extra info on a topic I have followed since being in Oz for a month last year!
I am linking this on my blog to spread the word!
Thanks!
February 14th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Hey gorgeous,
I wrote my post before the apology speech. Before I had ‘discussions’ with idiots. Before I spoke to my ignorant mother.
Oh, the post I could have written then.
But now I am glad I just wrote my simple, short, to the point post. Cause it would have taken me all day if I wrote what I really think!
Thanks so much for linking to all the posts. I am looking forward to having a read and ‘listening’ to others opinions.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
It’s wonderful that this issue has so mattered to our nation - as evinced not only by the posts you’ve linked to here (thanks for my inclusion!) but the many others. Pages and pages on Google if you type in the word Sorry.
Yesterday it was treated as a major issue by our Government and ourselves, and so it should be. I am astounded at the forgivingness of Indigenous Australians, and their willingness to embrace us white Australians as brothers and sisters, with the idea of moving forward together.
And I, who am so much older than you, am shocked to learn that in all the time between when you and I attended school, nothing changed! I never dreamed this history was still being swept under the carpet! When my kids were going to school … well, we always had very aware friends, so that was one of the topics freely discussed in our house. It’s only now I realise I have no idea whether it was addressed in their formal education. Probably not.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Hi Lani - I’ve written about it briefly. I have some of the wonderful posts about it on some of the links you’ve provided and been inspired that so many are accepting of the need to say sorry. I intend to think about it some more and say some more once I return to Australia next week.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
It’s been profound, moving and uplifting to read all the other posts you linked to. Thank you!
February 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Thankyou so much for putting together all these links. I am so grateful to be able to just spend some time to sit and take a read through many of them this afternoon.
Well done hon.
February 14th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Yay you! Awesome post! Wish I was home in Oz to be part of this historic day.
Thanks to blogs like yours, at the same time, don’t feel as far away.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
@ Jen - It seems that nearly all of us agree with Kelley at Magneto Too Bold. Although some might have phrased it more politely. (Not me though
)
@ Mad Goat Lady - “May the healing now begin.” I sure hope so!
@ Elizabeth - Thank you for the link. I’ve added Camilla’s post to the list. It is a very powerful poem and, as I said on her blog, it’s not often we hear people talking about responsibility for this in the first person and the present tense.
@ Random Tangent - Oh. You’re a trackback. I really need to do something about separating you from my comment threads, but I appreciate you nonetheless.
@ Enola - I’m not sure you’re American history curriculum is entirely to blame. Our population is small, and our indigenous population is very small (thanks to a drawn out genocide), so our dirty little secrets don’t get aired that much on the world stage. We had the same kind of internment camps during the war for Italians and other “undesirables”, btw. And indigenous Australians only gained the right to vote federally without restrictions in ‘62. The state of Queensland held out until ‘65, the same year your Voting Rights Act was signed. We are the same, your country and mine.
@ Mark - Thank you for reading and for the link. It sounds like you had a busy year travelling last year!
@ Kelley - I used to have those kinds of conversations with my mother. Since she’s been living internationally in, er… difficult countries her views have changed a lot. She Skyped me yesterday to say, “Today, I’m proud of my country.” Btw, I think your post said everything that needed to be said.
@ SnakyPoet - Perhaps my education was not typical of my time. I did attend 3 different High Schools so maybe I was unfortunate and the subjects crossed over. I was astounded by the generosity shown yesterday too. And most especially by the coolamon given to the Speaker. (For OS readers, that’s a wooden dish traditionally used for carrying babies so it was extraordinarily symbolic.) As for the response from the public, I know that there was a strong majority in favour of this for a long time, but i don’t think I realised how great that majority was. Apparently on Facebook yesterday the were massive number of Aussies who changed their status to, “I’m sorry”.
@ Ian - I’ve added your post and will keep an eye out for what you have to say when you return. As for the public response, I knew that there was a strong majority in favour of this, but I don’t think I realised how great that majority was. The number of people who gathered in the squares, who stopped everything to watch the coverage, who cried… Apparently even on Facebook yesterday there was a stream of Aussies who changed their status to, “I’m sorry”.
@ Bettina - I think that list is but a tiny sample, but it was good for me to read them too.
@ Charli - My Mum, who lives in Sudan, felt the same way. And I would have loved to be out in Federation Square watching it with everybody and sharing the moment myself instead of seeing it on TV alone. But having so many people sharing their thoughts… It’s good.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:39 am
I watched the news last night and paid attention specifically to the world news, just to see if it was mentioned. Not a peep. Sad that our country didn’t talk more about it.
February 15th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Wonderful post! Thanks for all those links, its interesting and encouraging to see so many people highlighting the topic. Let’s hope its the beginning of some much needed changes.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
[…] selection of blog posts on the apology (via Gillian - my post is […]
February 16th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Thanks for posting this and for the link. Powerful! The story of what we did in this country to the native Americans never really gets told either. It’s so akin to the old child abuser’s motto: “It’s for your own good!” Aaaccckkk! Hey, ya know, this would be another excellent post for THE BLOG CARNIVAL AGAINST CHILD ABUSE. I got the Feb. edition up at my blog now, with your post about your Seven Serious Random Things (thank you, very much!) Won’t you stop by and take a ride?
February 16th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[…] Sorry. Our apologies for the delayed edition this fortnight (Carnival was due out on Wednesday). Life has a habit of taking over at time. Truth be known, I think that Colin was so enamoured by the reality of Valentine’s Day that he just couldn’t get to his second love: the computer. Seriously Colin, thank you for completing the Carnival when life has been so very hectic for you. I appreciate it. […]
February 17th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
@ Enola I think everyone’s “international” coverage is pretty skewed towards our own countries. That’s why I like being able to watch some of the cable channels sometimes and get things from other perspectives.
@ Guera - Thank you. I was all prepared to publish some dissenting opinions as well but couldn’t find any. That’s a good start.
@ Marj - I’ve started reading through the carnival. I’ll get through everything eventually. There are some wonderful posts there as usual!
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