Australia apology to Aborigines
– Kevin Rudd’s apology represents a break from previous policies
Parliament statement;
– Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money, said
Noel Pearson Aboriginal leader
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
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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.
Mr Rudd has also outlined a new agenda on Aboriginal issues, including a commitment to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Aborigines and other Australians within a generation, was well as halving Aboriginal infant mortality rates within a decade.
Australia’s 460,000 Aborigines make up 2% of the population and are the most disadvantaged group.
They have higher rates of infant mortality, drug abuse, alcoholism and unemployment than the rest of the population.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7241965.stm
Where you get off Jake by saying they do us a favour??? What favour you speak of??? They took way our culture, language, families… then they pronounce SORRY!! A forced apology…. a true apology means actions and Australia is still involved in a continuing Aboriginal Genocide .. still now, acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Little progress if any is being made!!! EDUCATED??? our education is of the land..spiritual , dreamtime! No school and the teachings the australian government offered did anything to better us!!
An elder once said… CHILD, WE WILL BE HERE FOR A LONG TIME!! And yessss… he was right! We not going anywhere…believe that!!!
But we are big enough to hold our heads high… CHILDREN OF THE STOLEN GENERATIONS are COMING HOME!!! Healing Journey!!
And your words hold no substance!! Empty Blah!! Ignorance and Arrogance!!
And them that profess to ‘wasnt their problem’ it still is a problem. And will only cease when we all Unite as ONE!!
And remember…Erroneous assumptions can be disastrous.
Ras Tafar I Live!!!
Peace, Love and Oneness Iverytime
Money is numbers, and numbers never end.
If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.
Bob Marley
Man some of you people are defunct, Noel Pearson spoke on behalf of no one but himself for his own political agendas, he didnt speak for me, where’d he want money given to as ‘compensation’?. Himself and the other phoney elders!
The apology was wanted by the vast majority of Australians since the 1970’s when aboriginal Australia was formally recognised. No one had the balls to do it untill Kevin Rudd came along.
Why wouldn’t reperations be a acceptable form of healing? Giving money in my opinion doesn’t mean handing over a bag of cash for past afflictions. Instead how about creating a fund that can go toward education/health/and other non profit organizations that aim to uplift the undeniable second class standard of life many aboriginal people are living in.
These condition are created by the post colonial era, from which present aboriginal generations suffer from…And no not all people of european descendance are responsible for past wrongs, but those that fail to accept that the “white supremacist” philosophy (which in my opinion is not a color but an attitude) has been the demise of indigenous cultures and depletion natural resources all over the world for profit, is quite frankly fooling themselves.