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Grudging Opposition dampens ‘Sorry Day’

Two indigenous women shelter from the rain in Sydney (ABC News, 13 Feb. 2008)What a great day.  Australia has apologised to the Stolen Generations.  Prime Minister Rudd, in the presence of the new parliament, most surviving former Prime Ministers, and about 100 survivors of the Stolen Generations, delivered an apology that acknowledged the "profound grief, suffering and loss" caused by successive governments.  He did not presume to ask for forgiveness as such, but believes we can "take heart" that the future holds the promise of true equality for all Australians.

Rudd used the alarming phrase ‘mutual responsibility’, tainted by Howard-era connotations, and nowhere did he mention human rights — a sad reflection on the paucity of human rights culture in Australia that rights could be overlooked at such a juncture.

But he did use the word ‘sorry’ a number of times, which was important for many people, not least because John Howard refused to utter it.  As Mick Dodson explained to Tony Jones after Parliament adjourned, the word ‘sorry’ is rich with meaning for Aboriginal Australians, who attend to ‘sorry business’ when someone has died.

One sense of the word the parliamentary Opposition did not seem to grasp, is the admission that we were wrong.  Even if some individuals had good intentions (in a policy context that was undoubtedly ‘malevolent‘), we say sorry when we recognise we played a part in something that should never have happened.

A crowd in Melbourne turns its back on the screen projecting Nelson's speech (ABC News, 13 Feb. 2008)In a lengthy reply, the Opposition leader, Brendan Nelson, gave his support to the apology, but as though with the brakes on.  Where Rudd had referred to indigenous Australians as "a proud people and a proud culture", Nelson thought it important to emphasise the pride of the settler community.  Where Rudd resolved that "the injustices of the past must never, never happen again", Nelson made the jarring assertion that separation does and must continue.

Nelson seemed to  compare the suffering of indigenous Australia to the hardships faced by white settlers.  He described Aboriginal suffering as sacrifice, as if it were somehow essential and for a greater good.

I should like to have the text of his speech in front of me to be certain, but I think he said that European settlers founded a nation for both indigenous and non-indigenous Australia, which seems an extraordinary assertion, given frontier violence, dispossession, the White Australia policy and the Stolen Generations.

Many in the crowds gathered for public screenings in Canberra and Melbourne turned their backs on Nelson as he spoke (pictured, right).  Survivors interviewed by the ABC afterwards agreed that Nelson’s contribution detracted from the occasion.  His recounting individual cases of child abuse in indigenous communities — so widely aired every other day of the year — had the effect of diminishing indigenous dignity on a day when the focus was on the failings of non-indigenous Australia.

Nelson seemed to rankle most by honouring Australia’s war dead, which was met with booing in the Great Hall of Parliament House.  He also made a big deal of public spending on Aboriginal affairs, as if to say, ‘look how much we do for these people.’

It seems either Nelson fundamentally doesn’t ‘get it’, or else he seeks to placate various interests who still feel they have nothing for which to apologise.

Trailing a decade behind public opinion when it comes to reconciliation, the Coalition may be congratulated for coming as far as it has from under the shadow of John Howard.  That it has agreed to bipartisan work towards closing the gap "in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity" is a welcome relief.

Perhaps Kevin Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin are responding to last year’s damning UN human rights report on the state of indigenous housing in Australia when they nominated housing and constitutional amendment as priorities for the bipartisan commission Rudd proposed getting underway "before the end of this week".

Comments

  1. 15 February 2008 | 9:14 am

    Nelson did indeed say that European settlers built a nation for the indigenous people:

    ". . . two cultures; one ancient, proud and celebrating its deep bond with this land for some 50,000 years. The other, no less proud, arrived here with little more than visionary hope deeply rooted in gritty determination to build an Australian nation; not only for its early settlers and indigenous peoples, but those who would increasingly come from all parts of the world."

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