Rudd Apoligises to Stolen Generation

[Hiero]

At 9am Eastern Standard Time, prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to indigenous people for the stolen generation. Here is a aritcle by the Age, I will look out for a youtube clip if it comes avialable.

Indigenous men and women gave Australia's federal politicians a long, standing ovation after MPs formally apologised for the pain and suffering inflicted on the stolen generations.
There were emotional scenes across Australia as thousands of people, including some of those forcibly taken from their families, watched the historic, formal apology delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
In Canberra, hundreds packed into the House of Representatives as Mr Rudd moved a motion that the parliament apologise for the "laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on the stolen generations.
Some people in the public gallery, indigenous and non-indigenous, wept as Mr Rudd read out the 361-word apology, which was supported by the federal opposition.
At city squares and parks across Australia, and on the lawns outside parliament house in Canberra, people cheered, applauded, hugged and cried after the apology was delivered.
But some also jeered and turned their backs when Opposition Leader Dr Brendan Nelson spoke, at times emotionally, in support of the formal apology.
In his accompanying speech to parliament Mr Rudd said there came a time in history when people had to reconcile the past with their future.
"Our nation Australia has reached such a time and that is why the parliament is today here assembled," he said.
"To deal with this unfinished business of the nation.
"To remove a great stain from the nation's soul and in the true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land Australia."
Mr Rudd told the story of an "elegant, eloquent and wonderful" elderly indigenous woman, a member of the stolen generations, who he visited a few days ago.
Mr Rudd said there was something "terribly primal" about such first hand accounts.
"The pain is searing, it screams from the pages, the hurt, the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental humanity," he said.
The formal apology came more than a decade after the release of the Bringing Them Home report, which documented the stories of some of the tens of thousands of Aboriginal children taken from their families by governments between 1910 and the early 1970s.
"Instead, from the nation's parliament, there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade," Mr Rudd said.
"A view that somehow we the parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong, a view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side to leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors, as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.
"The stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.
"As of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end."
The former Howard government, which lost last year's election, refused to issue a formal apology, claiming it would leave the commonwealth liable to a flood of compensation claims.
Some coalition MPs were obviously displeased with the apology and some were absent from the chamber as it was delivered.
One Liberal MP, Chris Pearce, read a magazine during the motion and the speeches, refusing to get to his feet for several standing ovations.
He stood begrudgingly only when MPs were asked to vote on the motion.
Outspoken West Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey was present in the house for a prayer before the apology but left when Mr Rudd rose to his feet.
Mr Rudd said he knew the apology would not take away the pain the stolen generations had suffered.
He said he hoped today would not be just a moment of sentimental reflection, and invited the opposition to join the government in forming the equivalent of a war cabinet to tackle indigenous issues
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson accepted the invitation.
The prime minister said the joint policy commission would first develop and implement an effective housing strategy for remote communities during the next five years.
If that was successful the commission would then work on the constitutional recognition of first Australians.
While the formal apology said "sorry" three times, Mr Rudd's speech also offered personal apologies to the stolen generations.
"As prime minister of Australia, I am sorry," he said.
"On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry.
"On behalf of the parliament of Australia, I am sorry."
Mr Rudd's speech was greeted by a prolonged standing ovation from fellow Labor MPs, the opposition and those in the packed public galleries.
Dr Nelson then rose to speak "strongly" in support of the apology, saying the nation had today crossed a threshold.
"We formally offer an apology, we say sorry to those Aboriginal people forcibly removed from their families through the first seven decades of the 20th century," Dr Nelson said.
"In doing so, we reach from within ourselves to our past, those whose lives connect us to it, and in deep understanding of its importance to our future."
Dr Nelson called on Australians to focus on the contemporary problems of their indigenous counterparts including lower life expectancy, alcohol abuse, corruption, nepotism, political buck passing, lack of home ownership, under-policing and tolerance by authorities of neglect and abuse of children.
Dr Nelson was clearly emotional as he re-told the stories of some members of the stolen generations.
But as Dr Nelson began speaking, some people in Parliament's Great Hall, outside the parliamentary chamber, turned their backs on the large screen on which the speech was being televised.
They began clapping and yelling "shame", and some started to walk out.
In Melbourne's Federation Square and on Perth esplanade, many jeered or turned their backs as Dr Nelson spoke.
Inside the parliamentary chamber, some were clearly agitated by Dr Nelson's speech, particularly when he mentioned the Howard government's Northern Territory intervention.
Nonetheless, he received a standing ovation at the conclusion of his speech.
Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson leant across the dispatch boxes to shake hands.
Speaker Harry Jenkins invited MPs to rise in their places to signify their support for the apology, a move that also prompted sustained applause.
Mr Rudd, Dr Nelson and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin then moved to greet guests, including Aboriginal leaders and members of the stolen generations, seated in the distinguished visitors' gallery on the floor of the chamber.
Applause again erupted as Mr Rudd embraced one indigenous elder as he and Dr Nelson made their way along the line of guests.
Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson received a gift of a coolamon - a wooden dish traditionally used by Aborigines to carry light objects and even young babies.
They then stood together on the government side of the parliamentary chamber before handing it on to Speaker Harry Jenkins.
"The stolen generation representatives here today have asked me to make this presentation on their behalf to you as the speaker of the parliament," Mr Rudd said.
"I gratefully receive this gift on behalf of the house," Mr Jenkins said.
"It will represent a very important point in the history of not only this chamber but our nation."
Former prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were all present in the house for the apology.
John Howard was absent.

http://news.theage.com.au/apology-to...0213-1rv4.html

My quick opinion on this is positive. I think it is good to have a point where the government has declared that a great wrong has occurred. I hope it changes people's minds who thought that what had happend to Indigenous people in this country was insignificant and that their weren't survivors who are still affected by the settler government. Hopefully it makes white people less relectutant to support more reforms for indigidenous people.

[chebol]

Video, etc
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/apology/

Also:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/739/38263
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/739/38259
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/739/38258
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/739/38254

Finally, make sure you check out http://aboriginalrightscoalition.wordpress.com/

[BobKKKindle$]

Unfortunately, this mere symbolic gesture will not do anything to improve the conditions of the indigenous population, who continue to suffer discrimination and economic hardship - the apology will allow the government to claim that it has given recognition to the problems faced by these communities and the historic injustices, thereby obscuring the continued existence of these socio-economic problems.

[Red_or_Dead]

Better just an apology, then nothing at all. It wont change anything, but its a positive symbolic gesture. The stolen generation cant be "returned", but it may be a sign that Australia is prepared to do something about the status of indigenous people today.

[Cold]

Hopefully this will help the indigenous people get over the past. It is a good symbolic gesture. However, even though these people deserve a better life, I fail to see how we are directly responsible for what happened 100 years ago.

I apologize for something my great grandfather may have done, I am not sorry for my actions as I have done nothing wrong. This is the problem I am seeing here...it's not that I am not sorry what happened to the Aboriginal people, but the majority of Australia that are alive have done nothing wrong.

[Mujer Libre]

Hopefully this will help the indigenous people get over the past. It is a good symbolic gesture. However, even though these people deserve a better life, I fail to see how we are directly responsible for what happened 100 years ago.

I apologize for something my great grandfather may have done, I am not sorry for my actions as I have done nothing wrong. This is the problem I am seeing here...it's not that I am not sorry what happened to the Aboriginal people, but the majority of Australia that are alive have done nothing wrong.

A few things in response to this:
a) The wrongs perpetrated against Indigenous people are ongoing- continuing unabated from invasion in1788 to the Northern Territory invasion today. Besides which, events like the stolen generations weren't even all that long ago.

b) This isn't necessarily about us accepting 'responsibility' for past actions, but taking ownership of the above fact (that the invasion is ongoing- rather than something shrouded in the distant past as Howard and Windshuttle would have us believe), of the institutional racism that Indigenous people face and the fact that we all, by living in Australia, are benefiting from the dispossession of Aboriginal people.

I was pleasantly surprised by Rudd's speech, although obviously his "no compensation" policy and the bit about Indigenous people accepting the apology in the "spirit in which it was given" or whatever is a complete joke. Compensation would cost the government barely anything in real terms.

[Xiao Banfa]

I was pleasantly surprised by Rudd's speech, although obviously his "no compensation" policy and the bit about Indigenous people accepting the apology in the "spirit in which it was given" or whatever is a complete joke. Compensation would cost the government barely anything in real terms.

Oh yeah, nothing gets rednecks more mental case than compensating indigenous people.

With all the problems in the world that is what they care about, it's truly amazing.

Sweet jesus, I can't wait till the revo when we can put lead in the feckers brains.

It's usually the basest and most lowest common denominator sentiments that get popular.

Most of these fucking arseholes don't actually know fucking history.