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