Today, the 13th February 2008, Prime Minister Rudd moved a motion in parliament which was to record an apology to those aborigines who had been removed from their parents in order to assimilate them into white society. They are called the Stolen generations.

As I was listening to the radio most of the day, I heard that this apology has induced much emotion and reflection round the country. It has also induced hostility from both sides with white people saying there was no need to say sorry and with the aborigines who attended the parliament in Canberra turning their backs on the leader of the Opposition, who, when in government, refused to say sorry.

Today was a bi-partisan apology though.

My father was  involved with the aborigines in the 50′s and 60′s and he fought with others for the aborigines to be included in the census. They were now people, not animals. The referendum was held in 1962 and 92% of Australians voted for aborigines to be included in the census.
Much has happened since then – the Mabo agreement, the Wik agreement, land rights and so on. We thought that the land was the most important cure. And the land is important. But the stolen people were taken off the land and removed to urban areas, mostly.

The apology is very historic and important because most of those aborigines might have been loved by their adoptive parents and got a better education, but being torn from your mother and/or father at an early age must be horrific. The unconditional love one receives from one’s biological parents is irreplaceable.  Your life is ruined without it. The aborigines found it extremely difficult to find their biological parents and siblings again later as records were not kept very well and many of the parents had died. In 2001, the life expectancy at birth for an indigenous male was 56 years, and for an indigenous female, 63 years. Comparable life expectancies were experienced by males in the total population in 1901-10, and females in 1920-22. Today males in the total Australian population have a life expectancy of 76 years and females 82 years.

Also the adoptive parents were not told these children were aboriginal. These children were ‘whiter’, usually of white and black descent. Many of these children were brought up white and never knew of their aboriginality or the adoptive parents lied about it. Many were never placed with adoptive parents but were sent to Homes. That’s an identity stolen.

I’m glad this has happened. The UN has been at Australia for so long about our treatment of aborigines. People have wanted to apologize for so long and the new government has finally done it.

There is still much to do however. But that was not missed in the resolution.

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