Indian Express, India
February 13, 2008 Wednesday
AUSTRALIA SAYS SORRY TO ABORIGINALS ON DAY OF HEALING
Thousands of Aborigines and other Australians hugged, sobbed or stood
applauding on Wednesday as the country unitedfor a new era in race
relations. In city plazas, gardens, schoolrooms and offices, millions
were encouraged to pause as Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered
an apology for past injustices, including the forced removal of
children,after a decade of conservative refusal.
"My heart feels like it is going to burst out of my chest,"
saidAboriginal state lawmaker Linda Burney in Sydney. "I believe our
country needs this to have happened so we can havea new beginning,"
said Melbourne woman Julia Bain, who watched Rudd’s apology live on a
huge television screenin the city’s heart.
Aboriginal flags flew on major buildings, including Sydney’s Harbour
Bridge, or werecarried by thousands of others who cheered as Rudd’s
speech began. Many had gathered since dawn, staking out prize places
to watch history unfold.
"After all this time it’s finally happened and I’m here to support
allthose mothers who went through so much pain at having their
children taken away," said Aborigine EvonneGoolagong-Cawley, who won
Wimbledon titles in 1971 and 1980. Malcolm Fraser, conservative prime
minister from 1975 to1983, said he saw "a new chapter for Australia,"
telling Sky television he wished he had apologised when aleader.
Another former prime minister Paul Keating said Australia had
witnessed a day of "open hearts".
"The Stolen Generation was a cut right across the spirit of those
people and the soul of the country," Keatingsaid. Prominent
indigenous leader Pat Dodson, considered the father of the push for
reconciliation between Aboriginesand non-indigenous Australians, said
the government should now look at compensation for the victims of
past policies.
"The whole issue of making good for the past, including compensation
for the Stolen Generation, should indeed bepursued," Dodson told the
National Press Club. "But let us do it in a considered and negotiated
manner as partof a carefully constructed process, aimed at building
an Australian nation that recognises and respects Aboriginalhistory,
culture, language and society," Dodson said. But not everyone
supported Rudd, with some fearing theapology could open the door to
billions of dollars worth of legal claims for the past hurt suffered
by Stolen Generationchildren.
Outspoken conservative politician Wilson Tuckey, known as Ironbar for
his uncompromising views, walked out of parliament before the
apology, saying it would do little for Aborigines. "Tomorrow there’ll
be no petrolsniffing, tomorrow little girls can sleep in their beds
without any concern – it’s all fixed, the Rudd spin willfix it all,"
Tuckey quipped.
In the outback town of Bourke in western New South Wales state, which
has often beenthe scene of racial violence, many white Australians
also opposed apology. "I don’t think we should beapologising because
it wasn’t our generation that stole them," one female resident told
Australian radio.
But Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark, who himself has had run-ins with
Australian law, said most people saw the day as a start of healing.
A look at other formal apologies issued by governments to oppressed
populations
1998: Canada apologises to its native peoples for past acts of
oppression, including decades of abuse at federally funded boarding
schools whosegoal was to sever Indian and Inuit youths from their
culture and assimilate them in white society.
1992: South AfricanPresident FW de Klerk apologises for apartheid,
marking the first time a white leader in the country expressed
regretfor the system of legalised segregation that allowed 5 million
whites to dominate 30 million blacks.
1990: The Soviet Union apologises for the murder of thousands of
imprisoned Polish officers shot during World War II and buried in
massgraves in the Katyn Forest.
1988: The US Congress passes a law apologising to Japanese-Americans
for their internment during World War II and offering $20US,000
payments to survivors.
1951: West German Chancellor Konrad Adenaueracknowledges the
suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust and the following year,
Germany agrees to pay reparations toIsrael.
In 1990, the then East German Parliament issues an apology to Israel
and all Jews and others who suffered. Butsome still didn’t The US has
never issued a formal apology for the African slave trade or paid
reparations toslave descendants.
In 2007, Virginia became the first state to apologise for its
involvement, followed by Alabama,Maryland and North Carolina. No
state has offered reparations. The US has never apologised to
American Indians forpast actions, including forced relocation and
broken treaties and promises. American Indians have received
compensation for their lands over the years, but no formal apology.
Armenia has repeatedly requested an apology from Turkey for
thekillings of what historians estimate was up to 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey
maintains the toll has been inflated and that those killed were
victims of civil war and unrest.
China has accused Japan of not fully atoning for its invasions and
occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s, including
wartimeatrocities like the Rape of Nanjing, in which Japanese troops
massacred as many as 300,000 people while taking theChinese city in
1937.