The Prime Minister of Australia has apologised to the Stolen Generations, Indigenous Australians who were routinely separated from their families up until the 1970s.
I went to the town hall to watch the PM’s address, and was really surprised by how moving the experience was. I was proud of the government, and the whole country.
I’m sorry.
Meh. I slept through it.
We should do the same for the Indians.
We’re sorry we stole your land.
No, you can’t have it back. We’re not that sorry.
No, forget it. It’s history. Besides, we’re using it now. Get over it.
Besides, the statute of limitations has run.
Look, we apologized, okay? Jeez!
Somehow that wasn’t that moving. 
I didn’t see it either.
I think it was an important symbolic gesture to make. It was also important to get it out of the way so that we can concentrate on concrete solutions to some of the problems.
Is your “Meh” intended to indicate merely your lack of interest in the ceremony, or are you suggesting that the occasion and the apology itself were unwarranted or undeserved?
I think this is one of the most courageous and moving things a government has done in recent years. Beautifully worded and delivered with (what sounded like) genuine conviction and contrition.
TLD, you may not agree, for internal political reasons, but to us foreigners it looks incredible.
A BBC news feature about this subject stated that about a third of Australians do not agree with this apology. One person they interviewed stated that the Aboriginals should be “grateful for being given a chance of education, instead of eating widgety grubs all day out in the bush”.
So it seems the Australian government still have a lot to do.
I too, am sorry.
No one, I think, is foolish enough that one simple word will change everything, it now needs to be followed through. But until you acknowledge the wrongs of the past, how can reconciliation truly begin?
What was done to the Australian Aboriginals & Torres Strait Islanders was wrong. Families & communities were torn apart, children were taken from families, forbidden to speak their own languages, and kept ignorant of their culture. How much was irrecoverbly lost by that action?
Now I know that it’s not simple, that not all children were forcibly removed, but too many were. It was arrogant, racist and wrong.
We tell our children to say sorry when they do wrong. Why should we expect less of our parliament? Nelson’s argument that the current generation bears no guilt for the sins of our parents belies the generational hurt that was caused. The parliament and successive governments - of both persuasions - as representatives of the Australian community did wrong in our name.
I am sorry.
I do not believe in inter generational blame. The whole concept of a “stolen generation” triggers a lot of debate.
And of course, by saying sorry there is a compensation issue.
I too do not believe in inter-generational blame. The policy of wholesale removal of aboriginal children from their families was abolished some 10 years before I was born, I cannot be personally responsible for what happened. But I am sorry for what happened to those children.
I also think that the apology on behalf of the parliament - the entity that enacted this policy is appropriate. Although the members of the parliament may be different today than those that ordered the removal of children, the parliament itself is the same institution it ever was, and owes those people an appology.
To me, what happened today was not about bearing guilt, it was about acknowledging the wrong done, and suffering it caused, so that we can put it behind us.
Today wasn’t about compensation, but even if it turns out that there will be claims for compensation arising from todays apology, how can these people not deserve it for the harm done to them? (Note: I am talking here about the stolen children, their parents & siblings, not necessarily their descendants who did not personally suffer - that’s a more complex question by far)
That’s fair enough. I would also like to see an expression of thanks for those who went to better lives.
It is a controversial, divisive issue.
The thing that surprised me about the apology is that Kevin Rudd apparently got John Howard to write it for him.
I don’t think saying “sorry” will have any real bearing on compensation. Some people probably deserve compensation and should get it regardless of what speeches are or aren’t made in parliament.
Also this isn’t particularly intergenerational. It’s an apology from Parliament the ageless entity, to a group of people who are still living. It’s not like this happened hundreds of years ago.
[nitpick]
It’s witchetty grub
Well, government can’t change people’s minds about everything. There are always going to be people who are bigots, or who are ill-informed, or who just don’t care. And one of the things about a free society is that people are free to think what they want. But, as the institution that represents the people of Australia, and that was in power when the events occurred, i think that Parliament (through the Prime Minister) had a responsibility to acknowledge the wrong, and to apologize for it.
Also, saying sorry is not JUST about accepting blame. If you tell me that your mother died, and i say that i’m sorry, it doesn’t imply that i was somehow responsible for her death. As someone who wasn’t even born until the (offical) end of the policy of taking Aboriginal children from their families (1969), i don’t feel any personal responsibility for what was done, but i do feel very sorry that it was done. I also feel that the government i spent most of my life living under should apologize on behalf of the nation for things done under the official imprimatur of Parliament and the Australian people. That it has been this long in coming—especially after the 1997 release of Bringing Them Home—is pretty shameful, IMO.
