Australia to issue apology to Aborigines

[Praxius]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...ustralia_Aborigines_080130/20080130?hub=World

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia will issue its first formal apology to its indigenous people next month, the government announced Wednesday, a milestone that could ease tensions with a minority whose mixed-blood children were once taken away on the premise that their race was doomed.

The Feb. 13 apology to the so-called "stolen generations" of Aborigines will be the first item of business for the new Parliament, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose Labor Party won November elections, had promised to push for an apology, an issue that has divided Australians for a decade.

"The apology will be made on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people," Macklin said in a statement.

Rudd has refused demands from some Aboriginal leaders to pay compensation for the suffering of broken families. Activist Michael Mansell, who is legal director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Center, has urged the government to set up an $882 million compensation fund.

Macklin did not mention compensation Wednesday. But she said she sought broad input on the wording of the apology, which she hoped would signal the beginning of a new relationship between Australia and its original inhabitants, who number about 450,000 among a population of 21 million. Aborigines are the poorest ethnic group in Australia and are most likely to be jailed, unemployed and illiterate.

"Once we establish this respect, the government can work with indigenous communities to improve services aimed at closing the 17-year life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians," she said.

Christine King of the Stolen Generations Alliance, one of the key indigenous groups the government has consulted in crafting the apology, said she was "overwhelmed" that a date had finally been set.

"Older people thought they would never live to see this day," King said through tears. "It's very emotional for me and it's very important."

Australia has had a decade-long debate about how best to acknowledge Aborigines who were affected by a string of 20th century policies that separated mixed-blood Aboriginal children from their families -- the cohort frequently referred to as Australia's stolen generation.

From 1910 until the 1970s, around 100,000 mostly mixed-blood Aboriginal children were taken from their parents under state and federal laws based on a premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and saving the children was a humane alternative.

A national inquiry in 1997 found that many children taken from their families suffered long-term psychological effects stemming from the loss of family and culture.

The inquiry recommended that state and federal authorities apologize and compensate those removed from their families. But then-Prime Minister John Howard steadfastly refused to do either, saying his government should not be held responsible for the policies of former officials.

Barbara Livesey, chief executive of Reconciliation Australia, a government-commissioned agency tasked with bringing black and white Australians together, said the apology on the day after Parliament resumes for the first time since the November elections would be historic.

"It's a moment that all Australians should feel incredibly proud of, that we're recognizing the mistakes of the past," she said.

But opposition leader Brendan Nelson, whose conservative Liberal Party was thrown out of office in November after almost 12 years in power, questioned whether the apology deserved to be the new government's first item of business.

 

[Stretch]

apologise for what?? building new houses for them and then rebuilding them a yr later after they wreck them? or perhaps for giving them free education and hospitals....or perhaps for insisting they pay half of their cab fare and the aussie tax payer picks up the other half.....dont apologise for me, rudd, I havent done anything that requires one! ;-)

 

[Pangloss]

Oh, Stretch.

While I agree that the children are not responsible for the sins of the parents, there is a point to acknowledging attempted genocide, and trying to make amends.

Think of the Turks and the Armenian/Kurdish genocides: if you never admit to it, and accept responsibility, then you never get through it, and all sides remain bitter, aggrieved and combative.

A government, and most certainly a culture, can indeed be held responsible for the evil it has done in the past.

Pangloss

 

[Stretch]

ya had to be there.......

 

[Praxius]

Not to mention the Roman Catholics here in Canada who took Native children away from their families..... different reasons, but similar outcomes, which are also based on a racist overtone.

 

[Stretch]

most of the "stolen generation" in Aus were of mixed breed, probably the result of some priest raping in the name of god....however, the natives would've killed the mixed babies had they not been taken, a friend of mines mother was saved as a baby because her mother threw her into the fire as a baby of mixed blood..........

 

[karrie]

Stretch, Australia had a policy of 'watering down' the aboriginal blood through rape and coercion to attempt to 'breed it out of them'. Of course there were mixed breed babies. Of course the aboriginals weren't happy about the 'program'.

The ignorant things conquerors do.

​

 

[Stretch]

it was white mans policy to waterdown or exterminate non whites, not aus gov...remember, back then the english were in control of aus and where-ever the english went, blacks, reds and other non whites died

 

[karrie]

Nobody living in a country which was built upon a policy of extermination has clean hands.

 

[Stretch]

sadly, its pretty much the same where ever pakeha went.........

 

[tracy]

The thing is, some of this went on until the 70s. That isn't exactly ancient history.

 

[Praxius]

Well while we're at it, I want an apology from Queen Elizabeth the 1st's decendants for her Pr*ck Job she did to my family in Ireland and ousting us out of rule back in 1602. I want the Dunboy Castle rebuilt, bigger and better then before and resupply my forces with equipment and supplies.

If not.... I'LL SUE!!

 

[karrie]

You're going to compare the 1600's with the attrocities committed in the 20th century? Seriously?

 

[CDNBear]

apologise for what?? building new houses for them and then rebuilding them a yr later after they wreck them? or perhaps for giving them free education and hospitals....or perhaps for insisting they pay half of their cab fare and the aussie tax payer picks up the other half.....dont apologise for me, rudd, I havent done anything that requires one! ;-)

Ya no ones dirty there eh stretch, now that's a stretch.

I'm sure the horribly mutilated, poisoned and burned "abo's", used as human guiniepigs had it coming when the Australian Gov't allow the British to conduct Nuclear tests within miles of some of those fine homes eh?

Those scummy "abo's"!!!

 

[Stretch]

there were also pakehas effected by the testing....what did they get? they got sick and died and the survivers got kicked off of their cattle stations, such is life.....the yanks also did atmospheric nuclear testing and screwed up on the wind calculations...the radioactive cloud blew over FNQ...to the point where the secret service was all over a local milk factory because the milk from the local farms damn near glowed in the dark. It was all hushed up....now we have an unusually high rate of lukemia in the area....any apologies...........compensation....?

 

[Zzarchov]

You're going to compare the 1600's with the attrocities committed in the 20th century? Seriously?

If those who committed the crimes are dead either way, whats it matter? Yelling at one corpse for its evils versus another.

 

[karrie]

If those who committed the crimes are dead either way, whats it matter? Yelling at one corpse for its evils versus another.

They're not all dead though Zzarchov. These sorts of programs ran into the 60's according to some of the articles I found on-line. 'half caste' plans which gave support only to families who were having the aborigine bred out of them. It's not an issue of corpses yelling at corpses.

 

[Pangloss]

Zzarchov:

Normally you are an island of good sense and clear writing, something I admire and look forward to finding. On this issue however, you appear to have tipped off the rails.

At the risk of repeating my earlier post, of course you are right that the sins of the parent cannot be visited upon the children - unless there is an ongoing injury to the victim or benefit to the descendants of the wrongdoer.

My grandfather stole your grandfathers' farm - you are landless and I am rich. Rightly, I should turn over everything I have to you. There are endless variants of this scenario - from Jewish slave labour (hello, Siemens!) to refusing to admit to past misdeeds (Armenian/Kurdish genocides, the British starving the Indians, etc).

This ethic translates quite easily to institutions and governments.

Yeah, it's expensive and painful and embarrassing - it should be. If apologies were easy and painless there would be no value to them.

Pangloss

 

[Praxius]

You're going to compare the 1600's with the attrocities committed in the 20th century? Seriously?

Hey, I'm just making a point. You will always have people moaning and wanting compensation from the decendants of those who commited the crimes on humanity no matter how long ago they occured.

If the people who did it are dead, which I imagine most are by now.... then there's no real point in going any further then a national apology over what previous governments, etc have done.

If Queen E. tha 2 just makes a formal apology for almost wiping out my family line and those who fought with my family, then that'll be good enough..... but I know it won't happen, I do have a bit of realism in me.

I'll just have to goto war *grabs sword*

 

[Praxius]

They're not all dead though Zzarchov. These sorts of programs ran into the 60's according to some of the articles I found on-line. 'half caste' plans which gave support only to families who were having the aborigine bred out of them. It's not an issue of corpses yelling at corpses.

Yeah but those in charge back then in the 60's-70's would have most likely been middle aged already.... add another 30-40 years on that, and the chances are slim.

At the best, you might get some old cook still alive, but probably suffers from memory loss anyways and wouldn't have a clue what's going on.