Australians show us the way with “sorry”
I am inspired by Australia’s foray into the mostly uncharted waters of national apology. This week, Kevin Rudd, prime minister of Australia, apologized to the indigenous Aborigine tribe for the horrors done to them through racism in the name of “progress”. In particular, he mentioned the Stolen Generation, referring to the estimated 10-30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were taken from their parents to be raised and educated in white households, from 1910 until 1970. (partial text of Rudd’s speech is below).
As an American, I’m reminded once again of the massive denial that lives in our national psyche in the areas where apology has not yet been made. The Native American tribes of this land suffered full scale genocide at the hands of pioneering settlers and the US government. Healing between the tribes and the white majority here has not yet occurred. Sorry - on a national scale - has not yet been said.
The other wound that comes immediately to mind is the pain of the African people who were brought to this land against their will to be sold into slavery. No one has heard the word “sorry” about that tragedy from a President of the United States, that I know of. Please correct me if I’m wrong about this. I’d love to be wrong about it.
I think Australia is showing us the way….and like some people in Australia, some Americans are hesitant to open the door to “sorry” because it will also open the door to compensation. Yet an apology means nothing if there isn’t action to back it up. No one cares about words if they are just words, and nothing else. The Golden Rule reminds us - let us treat others in a way that we would like to be treated. Compensation in many forms, including educational, medical and employment support, is justice in action. It brings meaning to the words of apology and makes them real. Let’s not be afraid of this; rather, let’s say Yes to healing on every level of our national and global society.
We must make our inner healing real if we are going to be in any kind of shape to heal the Earth…together.
Partial text of Rudd’s Sorry Speech
Wednesday February 13, 2008
“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.”
There comes a time in the history of nations when their peoples must become fully reconciled to their past if they are to go forward with confidence to embrace their future.”
Later, Rudd states, “We are…wrestling with our own soul…it is just the truth: the cold, confronting, uncomfortable truth - facing it, dealing with it, moving on from it…
I know that, in offering this apology on behalf of the government and the parliament, there is nothing I can say today that can take away the pain you have suffered personally.
Whatever words I speak today, I cannot undo that.
Words alone are not that powerful; grief is a very personal thing.
I ask those non-indigenous Australians listening today who may not fully understand why what we are doing is so important to imagine for a moment that this had happened to you…
…Our challenge for the future is…to embrace a new partnership between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians - to embrace, as part of that partnership, expanded Link-up and other critical services to help the stolen generations to trace their families if at all possible and to provide dignity to their lives.
But the core of this partnership for the future is to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities.
This new partnership on closing the gap will set concrete targets for the future: within a decade to halve the widening gap in literacy, numeracy and employment outcomes and opportunities for indigenous Australians, within a decade to halve the appalling gap in infant mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous children and, within a generation, to close the equally appalling 17-year life gap between indigenous and non-indigenous in overall life expectancy…
…Let us take it with both hands and allow this day, this day of national reconciliation, to become one of those rare moments in which we might just be able to transform the way in which the nation thinks about itself, whereby the injustice administered to the stolen generations in the name of these, our parliaments, causes all of us to reappraise, at the deepest level of our beliefs, the real possibility of reconciliation writ large: reconciliation across all indigenous Australia; reconciliation across the entire history of the often bloody encounter between those who emerged from the Dreamtime a thousand generations ago and those who, like me, came across the seas only yesterday; reconciliation which opens up whole new possibilities for the future.”
Full text:http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudds-sorry-speech/2008/02/13/1202760379056.html
Dear Ana,
Thanks for the posting on the apology to the Native Peoples of Australia, one might say an apology is just an apology, only words, and much more is needed, however an apology offers hope for a strong new beginning, an apology recognizes a desire to understand, and appreciate how we have gotten “here” .And yes let’s hope that this gives the courage to our political leaders to apologize to our Native Peoples, and to the survivors of the slaves that helped to create this country.
I pray that with this powerfull and brave start we can begin to see that we are truly all a “family”, and as a family we need to honestly look at our history, not to blame/shame, but rather to heal and forgive.Every act, every behavior, all the violence, all the horror will only be healed with Love.
With the courage to look at the violence of the past and to apologize, we may also develope the courage to deal with the injustices and the violence happening in this moment, every step taken towards the Light is a step to a clear path of peace.
in Gratitude Peter
Comment by peter van dyk — February 18, 2008 @ 10:09 am
What a change for Australia given the tenor and beliefs evidenced by their prior leadership.
Thanks for posting; it’s a wonderful speech.
Comment by Tom Chandler — February 20, 2008 @ 9:36 am
Ana, The realisation of the atrocities done to the indigenous people of Australia and the president’s apology is a lauduble one, but his voice, however sincere or the voice of government may not be the voice of the nation. Prejudice dies hard. It is even seen in religion. When India gained its Independence, the caste system was abolished, but that did not remove the prejudice. It remained and is lingering still, though there is hope that it will eventually disappear with the education of the coming generations. In the USA the same could be said of the treatment of the indeginous peoples here. However, with the SLAVERY of Africans,the ugliest blot in civilization, where a people, made in the image of God and a brother man was reduced to the category of goods and chattels, who were deprived of their language and culture and therefore of their identity, no apology from a government alone can remove the indelible blot of the gross injustice perpetrated by their greedy forefathers.
However, there were efforts by individuals who saw the injustice and did what they can to help. Among them the greatest president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln who became a martyr for its cause. He used his authority during the civil war to free all the slaves, gave them asylum in the North and an opportunity to live as human beings. Frederick Douglas, one of his African advisers could have attested to his sincerity. But as I said before prejudice dies hard. We see it every day, but there is a glimpse of hope as is evinced during our primaries for the November elections. May Truth prevail.
Comment by randall butisingh — April 29, 2008 @ 4:26 pm