Today the Australian parliament extended an apology to the country's indigenous people, in particular to those who were part of the "Stolen Generation." "The Stolen Generations (or Stolen Generation) is a term used to describe the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, usually of mixed descent, who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state acts of parliament, denying the rights of parents and making all Aboriginal children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and (officially) 1969," according to Wikipedia. The government's brutal policy was to acculturate the mixed children to white society which could only be done in white homes. The result was to tear apart families as the mixed child was often removed forcibly.
Here is an account of what is being called the Day of Apology from the Daily Telegraph:
In the Great Hall, and in the chamber itself, where members of the Stolen Generation sat in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery, the tears flowed freely.
Why would they not? For Mr Rudd was delivering what indigenous Australians had been begging for: an acknowledgment that "the laws and policies of successive Parliaments have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on generations of Aborigines.
Developing his theme, the Prime Minister spoke of "the mothers and fathers, the brothers and the sisters" who had endured the anguish of the loss of their families, the breakup of their lives.
It was delivered with plain sincerity; in tone and content, precisely the sort of thing the audience had been expecting.
But the tears threatened to flow in torrents as Mr Rudd recounted the story of Nanna Nungalla Fejo, snatched from her family at Tennant Creek with her brothers and cousins when she was "about four".
Shunted from mission to mission at the theological whim of successive orphanage overseers, Nanna Fejo was sent finally to prearranged domestic employment in Darwin when she about 16. She was never to see her mother again.
"She said, what I should say today is that all mothers are important," Mr Rudd reported.
"Families - keeping them together is very important."
I applaud the government's decision to apologize. The symbol of the apology is important. But now, I hope that there will be real policy change to increase opportunity for those who have suffered.
