"Stolen Generations" of thousands of children get an 'apology'

Kevin Rudd's apology represents a break from previous policies

The Australian government has made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised in parliament to all Aborigines for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss".

He singled out the "Stolen Generations" of thousands of children forcibly removed from their families.

The apology, beamed live around the country on TV, was met with cheers.

But some Aborigines say it should have been accompanied with compensation for their suffering.

'Indignity and degradation'

In a motion passed unanimously by Australian MPs on Wednesday morning, Mr Rudd acknowledged the "past mistreatment" of all of his country's Aboriginal population.

For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry

"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians," the motion said.

Mr Rudd said he apologised "especially" to the Stolen Generations of young Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s.

"For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

Aborigines are the most disadvantaged sector of society

Australia has no Aboriginal members in parliament, but 100 leaders of the community and members of the Stolen Generations were present for the historic apology.

The leader of the Liberal opposition, Brendan Nelson, said he "strongly" welcomed the apology.

He decided to take a different position on the issue than his predecessor, former Prime Minister John Howard, who refused for over a decade to apologise to the Stolen Generations - a stance supported, polls suggest, by about 30% of Australians.

Mixed response

The government hopes the apology will repair the breach between white and black Australia and usher in a new era of recognition and reconciliation.

The parliamentary session was shown live on television as well as on public screens erected in cities across the country.

Mr Rudd received a standing ovation from MPs and onlookers in parliament, and cheers from the thousands of Australians watching outside.

Michael Mansell, a spokesman for the rights group the National Aboriginal Alliance, said the word "sorry" was one that "Stolen Generation members will be very relieved is finally being used", reported Associated Press news agency.

But the refusal to accompany the apology with any compensation has angered many Aboriginal leaders, who have called it a "cut-price sorry".

"Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money," summed up Noel Pearson, a respected Aboriginal leader, in The Australian newspaper.

BBC

Aboriginal Holocaust

Native Massacres and Indigenous Genocide

Exploring international indigenous genocide, specifically regarding the similarities between American and Australian Aboriginal holocausts.

Black Elk, Oglala Holy Man...on the aftermath of the Massacre at Wounded Knee
"I did not know how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream... The nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead."

International Assimilation And Genocide

The "One America" campaign, hatched during the US's Clinton administration, is very similar to other assimilationist movements worldwide, such as Australia's infamous "One Nation" Party. Note the similarity of discourse revealed in the titles of these movements. This kind of "we are one" propaganda is very sneaky, as it hides genocidal aspirations behind protestations of love and brotherhood.

This is very similar to the supposedly humanitarian ideology behind the original invasions - notions of "rescuing" the natives from ignorance and sin, bringing "civilisation" and Christianity. But this facade of "brotherly love" did little to hide the reality of hot lead and poison blankets. The same principle applies today.

Black Armband History, Americas

Assimilatory pushes for homogeneity are always accompanied by calls to forget the "black armband version of history". This means forgetting nation-defining events such as:
The Cherokee Trail of Tears, when in the winter of 1838 thousands of people either froze to death or died of starvation.

Sand Creek and the murder and mutilation caused by Col. Chivington and his men, and the Washita River, where Black Kettle was murdered in his sleep along with his wife and many of his people.

The Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, where thousands died while being herded like animals from Dineh land in Northern Arizona to Southern New Mexico.

Black Armband History, Australia

In Australia, it was the same, with a long history of massacres ending with the last official (government funded) ones in the late 1920's. Most towns were built on blood, then swept clean with new names, new plants and new peoples.

Let's just look at one small town as an example. Marriba (Marri - kangaroo, ba - plenty) in the late 1800's had a remnant community of Aborigines who had made a niche for themselves in the new "settlement", helping the invaders learn about their new land. One day an officer and his men rounded them all up and shot them in the middle of the town. The community pitched in to buy him a ceremonial sword to commemorate the event. Marriba was then Anglicised to "Maryborough" and the colonisation was complete.

This is just one story of thousands in Australia. There were between one and four million of us when the Europeans arrived, and now there are only about a quarter of a million, even though our numbers have increased steadily over the last half-century. Can you imagine the extent of the slaughter?

How can such a stain be ignored?

To read about the first ever Government-mandated massacre in Australia, see my article Terrorist Attack On Aborigines.

http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/aboriginal_holocaust