"On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry."

[4thofeleven]

Today, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia formally apologised to the Stolen Generations.

 

A bit of background: The European colonization of Australia was pretty nasty, even by the standards of its era. Legally, Australia was deemed ‘terra nullus’ by the British government – no-man’s land. While in the Americas and New Zealand there was at least the occasional pretence of legally acquiring the native people’s lands, the white settlement of Australia was conducted on the assumption that the indigenous Australians did not exist. Where this assumption proved impossible to maintain, efforts were made to ensure that the indigenous Australians would not exist…

Massacres of Australian aboriginals were common throughout the nineteenth century, with the native Tasmanians being particularly targeted by the first European settlers in a twenty year long genocidal campaign now known as the ‘Black War’, which ended with the complete displacement of the last few hundred natives from the Tasmanian mainland. The last full-blooded Tasmanian died in 1878; her skeleton remained on display at the Tasmanian museum until the late 1940s. H.G. Wells, in The War of the Worlds, compares the Martian treatment of humanity to British actions against the Tasmanians.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, attitudes towards Aborigines became less actively genocidal and increasingly patronisingly paternal. Under the Australian constitution ratified in 1901, indigenous Australians were not counted as citizens, and were not recorded in censuses. Instead, Aborigines were classified under the Flora and Fauna act. Aborigines did not gain full citizenship and voting rights until 1967.

The Stolen Generations was largely an attempt to forcibly integrate the remaining Aboriginal population into white Australian culture, while extinguishing native society and identity once and for all. It began with the forcible removal of mixed-race children from their parents, ostensibly for their own protection – it was claimed that mixed-race children were unwelcome in Aboriginal communities. The policy was expanded during the first half of the twentieth century, with tens of thousands of children, both full-blooded and mixed-race, being taken from their parents to be raised in instructions or by (white) foster families. In Western Australia, legal guardianship of Aboriginal parents over their children was revoked in 1905, making all Aboriginal children wards of the state; parental permission was neither asked for nor required to remove the children. Children were punished for speaking indigenous languages, and parents were often prevented from learning where their children had been taken. In turn, the children were frequently told their parents were dead, and little effort was made to keep records of who their parents were. The Bringing Them Home report, commissioned by the government in 1997, concludes that ‘between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970’ and that ‘In that time not one family has escaped the effects of forcible removal’.

The Stolen Generation has been a controversial issue in Australian politics since the late 1980s, when the Mabo land rights legal case drew attention onto indigenous issues. All state and territory governments during the late 1990s made apologies, but the federal government under former Prime Minister John Howard steadfastly refused to apologise. In 2000, then Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron claimed that there was no stolen generation, arguing that ‘only’ one in ten Aboriginal children were taken from their families, and that therefore that did not constitute enough to count as a ‘generation’. This sort of semantic word-play became a hallmark of the Howard government’s approach to the Stolen Generation, which also included Howard offering his ‘personal regrets’ while refusing to make an apology on behalf of the government. Or did he only offer to offer his regrets? I can't remember; the Howard Govenment went out of its way to confuse a fairly simple moral argument; that those who were taken from their famlies without cause deserve acknowledgment that what was done to them was wrong...

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but Kevin Rudd kept his promise, and in the first week of parliament, we finally saw the leader of the Australian government apologies for the monstrous wrongs committed against the Aboriginal people. The denials and petty refusals of the Howard era are over; those who suffered as a result of the racist policies of the Australian government directed against them and their families have finally heard the word ‘sorry’ from the Australian government.

Denial of the Stolen Generation is no longer in the political mainstream; reconciliation is finally possible again. There is still much to be done to repair the damages of the past; much to be done to improve the place of indigenous Australians. Let us hope that the Rudd government is willing to go beyond the apology to truly compensate the Aboriginal peoples for all that past governments thoughtlessly destroyed.

John Howard was noticeable for his absence; as all the other living Prime Ministers of the past gathered to observe this historic day, the rodent was – where? I’m actually glad he decided not to make an appearance; after a decade of refusing to apologise under any circumstances, he had no right to be there. Still, his refusal to attend was a petty act, as suits a petty little man.

Mr. Rudd’s speech was perfect; accepting the injustices of the past, putting a human face on the tragedy, while still always looking to the future. Brendan Nelson’s speech was an incoherent mess – it’s important he said something, to show the opposition and the government stand together on this, especially after Abbot’s earlier statements that he believed ‘many [children] were helped and some were rescued’, or Wilson Tuckey’s boycott… still, it was a terrible speech. At least it ended on the right note: “We are sorry.”

I have to say, if I was one of the stolen, or one of the parents who lost their children, I doubt I’d ever be able to accept an apology. Maybe I’m just not a forgiving sort of person, but the whole situation that Aborigines were forced into is the stuff of nightmares. I don’t think it’s ever possible to atone for such things…

But there’s a difference between ‘cannot atone’ and ‘will not atone’. It is such a little thing, to acknowledge that wrongs were committed – but it’s a good first step. I’m proud our government has finally taken it, and saddened that it took so long to do so little…

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Speech

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson’s Speech

Comments

[lyore.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you so much for writing this post - it has restored my faith in both Aussies in general and my flist in particular.