SORRY DAY
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Australia,
today, said “Sorry” to it’s Aboriginal people for the Stolen Generation. The generation
of Aboriginal children who were ripped from their parents to be put into “good”
white families, who would raise them “properly”. In other words, people who
would raise them as white children were raised and supposedly this would mean
that this generation would not drink alcohol, have sex with their parents, would get
jobs and eventually be just like “white” people in a few generations (who of
course never do these things!!). There was some talk at the time that the
Aboriginal population would eventually
die out and no longer be a problem to the white overseers of the
country.
The
problem with this idea was that Aboriginal people are different. They have a
different culture to the caucasion person. We have had many instances through
the years of missionaries and other governments trying to stop what is a
cultural and possibly ingrained qualities in a race of people. Hitler tried to
do it to the Jews; the English tried to do it to any number of Polynesian
people.
Most
people I have spoken to agree this apology has been a long time coming. I have
also heard things like “The elders slept with the little girls”, “the parents
got drunk and beat the children”. Suggesting that the solution taken at the time
stopped these problems. Well, it didn’t. Elders still sleep with little girls; parents
still get drunk and beat their children. So do white parents. White men sleep
with their daughters; white parents get drunk and beat their children. But as a
race, they are not chased through the bush, and have their children taken from
them with violence. However, somehow removing the children from their families
is supposed to have changed that.
The
purpose was not to stop violence, to stop the drinking or the sexual abuse.
THAT wasn’t even mentioned in those days. Nor was it considered. The reason was
because they were different. They were not white. The reason was to
“assimilate” them into “proper” society as it was seen to be in those days.
Australians
condemn other nations for genocide. They condenm Hitler for trying to wipe out
the Jews, but what was the purpose of taking these children from their parents.
The purpose was to rid the world of one particular race, to make everyone “white”.
This is what Australians tried to do to the people who lived here first.
Aboriginals
have been fighting for this reconciliation for years. They have been working
towards this to make it happen. They worked with Kevin Rudd to make his speech
the best it could possibly be. And from what I hear, most Australians are
pleased with the outcome. Particularly the Aboriginal people I’ve spoken to
today. They are totally over the moon with pleasure. Personally, I was moved by
his speech. I felt it was elegant and eloquent. I also felt that Kevin Rudd
believed what he was saying, even while I know all politicians speeches are
written by speech writers. Kevin Rudd believed what he was saying.
I
would have liked to have a photo of one scene I saw on television this morning.
I saw two women, side by side, one Caucasian, one Aboriginal. The Caucasian woman was wearing
a black t-shirt, with white writing that said “Sorry”. The Aboriginal woman was
wearing a black t-shirt, with white writing that said “Thanks”.
I read some ranting and raving about how bad this
all is, how it’s a comunist plot, how the stolen generation never happened. I’ve
heard comments about Rudd’s intentions behind the apology. Much sounding quite paranoid
to me.
No
the problems will not be solved by Kevin Rudd’s actions today. However, it is
something. It is a step. No one really knows what the solution to the problem
is. Neither black nor white can say with any conviction, this solution will fix
the problem. However, I do believe that this is a step in the right direction
and very much hope that Rudd and his advisors can make some good strong changes
over the next 4 years.
“Professor Mick Dodson, director of Aboriginal
studies at the Australian National University, is convinced that the symbolism
of Rudd's apology to the stolen generations will eventually show up in
practical improvements in black welfare.
'The reality is that how you feel about yourself,
and whether you feel your culture and history is acknowledged and respected, is
a key part of facing your problems and being able to turn things around,'
Dodson said. “
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/features/article_1391050.php/Australias_black-white_divide_still_stark
I agree. To acknowledge the bitter past of some of these people. As a
mother, I cannot imagine what it would be like for someone to come to me, and
literally rip my children from my arms. Not necessarily because of anything I’d
done. But simply because my skin was dark. I simply cannot imagine what that
must feel like.
I also cannot imagine what it must have been like
for a child. Again, ripped from her mother’s arms, with no explanation, to be
taken to a strange family, expected to wear clothes that looked funny. To be
entered into schools where I was mocked, and treated as something different
simply because my skin was a different colour. To then be moved again, simply because
the government had changed it’s mind about what should happen to me. And
possibly moved again and again. What impact would that have on a child? How
would that child make sense of what had happened to her/him. Possibly they
would decide that there was something wrong with them.
So the the Aboriginal people of Australia, I also say “Sorry”. And I
hope, for all Australians, black and white, that this apology goes some way to
mending fences and leaving the way for both races to move forward into the
future.
Madeleine
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
