Saying sorry

from w
Yesterday was a super day in Australian history when the Prime Minister, Kevn Rudd, apologised to the Aboriginal people of Australia for the hurt of the past years when children of mixed race were brutally taken from their bush camp families to live in orphanages and missions. Two motives apparently - one to save them from poverty, and the the other to participate in the assimilation and disappearance of the indigenous race as government policy of the time. We now know better. Well, over the years they have survived.


For many years some artists, musicians, churchmen and women have advocated for reconciliation starting with an apology for those policies. Including the rock singer - now politician - Peter Garrett.

I scanned some photos from the Age newspaper this morning, one is of Kevin Rudd embracing an elderly woman whose story he told during his speech. The photo of the PM and some former PMs is interesting and some of them have needed to say sorry to one another. I notice that these days Gough needs to lean on his neighbour Malcolm Frazer a bit and there's some irony there.