AUSTRALIA'S apology to the Stolen Generation should not only use the word "sorry", it should also concede that removing Aboriginal children from their families was "evil" and "cruel" and part of a policy that could not be justified or excused.
This form of wording, taken from a similar apology in Canada, was put to Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin last week by an influential lobby group led by Aboriginal leader Lowitja O'Donoghue and former prime minister Malcolm Fraser.
Details of the meeting emerged yesterday as Ms O'Donoghue backed a push for a $1billion compensation fund to be established for the Stolen Generation, saying an apology without compensation "won't settle anything", while compensation would head off the potential for "a litany of court cases".
While Ms Macklin has said it is more important for the Federal Government to close the 17-year gap in Aboriginal life expectancy and deficiencies in health and education, Ms O'Donoghue said these were statutory obligations and the Stolen Generation of indigenous children removed from their families needed to be separately resolved.
In the first suggestion of a form of words that might be used in the apology, Ms Macklin was asked by the Stolen Generations Alliance, of which Ms O'Donoghue and Mr Fraser are patrons, to consider a 1998 apology by the moderator of the United Church of Canada to children sent into church-run, government-funded Indian Residential Schools.
In the apology, church moderator Bill Phipps referred to a "cruel and ill-conceived system of assimilation", "evil acts" and a "horrendous period in Canadian history".
In November 2005, the Canadian Government announced a $1.9 billion compensation package, with government ministers calling it a "fair and lasting resolution" for "the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act in our history".
At the meeting last Tuesday with the National Sorry Day Committee, the Stolen Generations Alliance, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Tom Calma and indigenous leader Mick Dodson, Ms Macklin was told there was a difference between the words "sorry" and "apology", with "sorry" holding far more emotional power.
"Some say that 'apology' comes from the head, whereas 'sorry' comes from the heart," she was told.
The Canadian apology was included in a document handed to Ms Macklin by the Stolen Generations Alliance, titled "Some thoughts on how the Prime Minister might say sorry".
It was endorsed yesterday by Ms O'Donoghue and alliance co-chair Christine King, who said it was "absolutely" appropriate to describe Australia's child separation policies as cruel and evil.
It was suggested the apology should be offered to indigenous people "for the policies which removed tens of thousands of their children from their families". It could be given by the Prime Minister on Sorry Day in May next year in the Great Hall of parliament in a ceremony at which members of the stolen generations would speak.
Ms O'Donoghue and Ms King backed a call by Aboriginal lawyer Michael Mansell for a $1billion compensation fund for the Stolen Generation, contributed to by federal and state governments. They said $1 billion was not a large amount to compensate for the damage that was done to thousands of Aboriginal children.
"Aboriginal people will not move on until this matter is resolved," Ms O'Donoghue said. Without compensation, the Government would be faced with "a litany of Trevorrows, a litany of court cases".
In August, South Australia's Supreme Court became the first jurisdiction in the country to recognise the Stolen Generation as a basis for legal compensation, when it found Bruce Trevorrow, now 50, was treated unlawfully and falsely imprisoned when he was removed from his mother's care and handed over to a white family in 1957, aged 13 months. He was awarded $525,000.
Ms King said the Alliance would meet next month to work on a draft apology to put to the Government. Ms O'Donoghue said peak Aboriginal organisations and leaders should be brought into the discussions about the apology.
Asked whether a 10-year-old girl in the Cape York community of Aurukun should have been removed from her family, Ms King said it was "the paramount right of every child to be safe". She said the children of the Stolen Generation were not taken away to save them, but to change them.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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5 comments:
"She said the children of the Stolen Generation were not taken away to save them, but to change them." Sorry, but maybe in some cases, but not all.
This is simply untrue.
My family lived on an aboriginal mission for 9 years, doing it just as tough as the 5 tribes who also lived there.
They had what we had, and vise versa.
Some of the kids were brought into the mission as strays and half-castes, shunned by their tribes, others were family groups who were being persecuted by farmers and were being killed off.
The Mission was a safe haven for them.
No one was held against their will.
We provided housing, education, food, fresh water, employment opportunities, started the first aboriginal co-oporative in Australia, where the wages were paid directly to the men who worked the luggers.
It gave them freedom, and empowerment, and we wouldn't change a thing!
We also built a church, but still insisted the tribes sing 'in launguage' and danced their 'bora' at the dancing grounds.
My dad was very clear on this, to keep their culture and ways alive.
Please point out where we were 'evil and cruel'?
Most Lockhart people still remember very fondly 'Warby-time' as a time of great fellowship and rejoicing.
Good health, with regular checkups, hookworm eradicated, clean drinking water to every house, employment and apprentiships as welders/mechanics/stockmen/butchers etc allowed the community to become self-sufficent.
Now at Lockhart, there is hard drinking, abuse, violence and unemployment.
There is also the Lockhart 'Art Gang' who now travel the world displaying their magnificent artworks. These artists are the grandchildren of our sea-captains, and lugger crew, who lived long happy stable lives, so that their grandchildren can reap the rewards.
We are very proud of the Art-Gang, and will continue to support in any way we can.
was it really all sunshine and roses!!!
Oh goodness no, but it wasn't that bad either!
thanks patty! its good to hear it from the horses mouth as they say cause over hear its hard to explain or understand but your comment helped a lot slainte !!!
so we're talking that the lost generation occured 40 something years ago?
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