Australia Apologizing to Aborigines

SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 13th. (NY Times) — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asked Parliament on Tuesday to approve an apology to the country’s indigenous minorities for past mistreatment of them at the hands of the authorities. The apology itself will be made by Mr. Rudd on Wednesday, but he presented Parliament with the text he intends to use. Parliament, which is dominated by his party, is expected to approve it. “We apologize for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians,” the text reads. The apology is aimed particularly at the “stolen generations,” the thousands of Aboriginal and mixed-race children who were taken from their parents, in some states as part of a policy to “breed out the color,” in the words of Cecil Cook, who went by the title of chief protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the 1930s. The text of the apology fulfills one of the basic demands of the people who have been calling for such a move for years: It includes the word “sorry.” “We apologize 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,” the text reads.

Kirstie Parker, the managing editor of the Aboriginal newspaper The Koori Mail, said she thought the apology hit the right note. “I think it is a very broad but in some places quite specific statement, and I found it very moving,” she said. But she said that the apology would fall short for many indigenous Australians because the government had ruled out offering compensation to those affected by the policy. “There are many people who are saying that they must back this up with compensation,” Ms. Parker said. The previous government, under Prime Minister John Howard, refused to apologize, partly because it did not feel responsible for the misdeeds of past administrations, but also because of fear that an apology would lead to enormous compensation claims. Last year, a court in South Australia awarded 525,000 Australian dollars, or about $475,000, to Bruce Trevorrow, who was taken from his mother when he was a baby, for unlawful treatment and false imprisonment. “I get a distinct feeling among Aboriginal people that they feel that compensation is an absolute possibility, notwithstanding the prime minister’s very vehement statement about not considering it,” Ms. Parker said.

The apology does end with a commitment to eradicating the gap between mainstream Australia and the 2.5 percent of the population that consists of Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders. The apology imagines “a future where we harness the determination of all Australians, indigenous and nonindigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.” The first full sitting of the new Parliament is on Wednesday, and making the apology the first item of business is deeply symbolic. A 1997 report by the government’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission estimated that from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 indigenous and mixed-race children were taken from their parents in the decades leading up to 1969, when the policy was formally abandoned. The effects of two centuries of discrimination, coupled with the friction between an ancient and unique culture and the modern world, have left many indigenous Australians eking out a living on the margins of society. Aboriginal life expectancy is 17 years shorter than the average Australian’s; indigenous unemployment is running at three times the rate of the country as a whole; and the incidence of crime and alcoholism is significantly higher in indigenous communities.
By TIM JOHNSTON
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