Saying "Sorry"
anonymous
March 1 2008, 08:48:49 UTC
Whilst I agree that there is a lot that non-Aboriginal Australians should be sorry for, I believe that a Federal Government apology for the "Stolen Generations" is misguided. Why apologise for something which doesn't appear to have happened (a racist policy to "steal" children solely because of their race) when there were actually legitimate wrongs we could have apologised for?
Friend, above you say, "Except that you miss a vital point - the apology made isn't the end, it's the beginning. It is, and is intended to be, the first step to reconciliation." I don't know whether you've read Coroner Alastair Hope's recent report into deaths in the Kimberley, but the situation on the ground here in Western Australia is truly horrific.
And it's been more than 10 years now since our State Parliament made an official apology to our Indigenous people "on behalf of all Western Australians."
That "first step" of which you speak is now 10 years behind us in Western Australia, and if anything it seems things have gotten worse.
How many more decades, how many more generations of Aborigines do we lose to abuse and neglect, before this apology "kicks in"? We have thrown words and money at this situation and neither have helped. When will we be brave enough to try something new?
Friend, above you say, "Except that you miss a vital point - the apology made isn't the end, it's the beginning. It is, and is intended to be, the first step to reconciliation." I don't know whether you've read Coroner Alastair Hope's recent report into deaths in the Kimberley, but the situation on the ground here in Western Australia is truly horrific.
And it's been more than 10 years now since our State Parliament made an official apology to our Indigenous people "on behalf of all Western Australians."
That "first step" of which you speak is now 10 years behind us in Western Australia, and if anything it seems things have gotten worse.
How many more decades, how many more generations of Aborigines do we lose to abuse and neglect, before this apology "kicks in"? We have thrown words and money at this situation and neither have helped. When will we be brave enough to try something new?
(I am spot_the_dog)
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