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G4EBT > STOLEN 01.02.08 14:50l 142 Lines 5937 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 957777G4EBT
Read: GUEST
Subj: Stolen kids; Rudd to apologise
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0MRW<DK0WUE<DB0RES<ON0AR<GB7FCR
Sent: 080201/1033Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:60191 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:957777G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : STOLEN@WW
It's been reported that generations of Aborigines taken forcibly from
their parents under a century of assimilation policies are to receive a
formal apology from the Australian Government in a landmark step towards
reconciliation.
Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, will deliver the apology to the "stolen
generations" on the floor of Parliament on February 13 2008. It will be
the Labor Government's first item of business.
"It's building a bridge of respect which I think has been in some state
of disrepair in recent decades", Mr Rudd said. "But having crossed that
bridge, the other part of it is all about practical business".
The apology will come more than a decade after a government inquiry
established that at least 100,000 children were removed from their
parents between about 1869 and 1969.
They were placed in orphanages run by churches or charities, or fostered
out to socialise them with European culture. Some were brutalised or
abused, physically and sexually.
Their plight was brought to the attention of the world and illustrated
in the 2002 film Rabbit-Proof Fence, based on the true story of young
mixed-race Aboriginal girls fleeing a remote settlement in which they
were placed.
Aborigines broadly welcomed Mr Rudd's announcement. The final wording
is crucial and consultations with Aboriginal groups continue.
Some are demanding the use of the word sorry, but Mr Rudd has shied away
from it. "Well, 'apology, 'sorry' - it's the same thing", he told an
interviewer in November. Some aboriginal groups want the mea culpa to
extend to much broader sufferings endured by indigenous Australians
since the arrival of the first whites.
The Government is also facing increasingly strident calls for A$1 billion
(GBP œ448 million) or more in financial compensation - which it is
steadfastly refusing - or free private health and medical care for
life for those taken from their families.
Michael Anderson, a spokesman for the 16 clans comprising the Gamilaroi
nation of northwest New South Wales and southwest Queensland, said that
for an apology to be meaningful, Mr Rudd needed to say why the Government
was making it.
"If Rudd and his Labor Government are serious, the detail of a sorry
statement must include the true horror of the genocide that was planned
against the Aboriginal peoples and what was carried out", Mr Anderson,
whose grandmother was taken from her family in 1914, said.
This has been a long time coming.
It's a full 15 years since Paul Keating - the then Prime Minister, made
his landmark speech to world acclaim at Redfern Park in Sydney on 10 Dec
1992 (Redfern is an inner city suburb of Sydney with an historically large
Aboriginal population) at the Australian Launch of the International Year
for the World's Indigenous People.
And it's a full ten years since the 1997 "Bringing Them Home" Report - the
findings and recommendations of the National Inquiry into the separation
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.
The Inquiry had four terms of reference:
(a) Removal by compulsion, duress or undue influence:
The Inquiry was required to trace the history of forcible removal of
Indigenous children from their families `by compulsion, duress or undue
influence' and the effects of removal.
Compulsion can be illegal (such as kidnapping) or legal (such
as when a court orders a child to be removed for `neglect').
b) Adequacy of services for those affected:
The Inquiry had to examine the adequacy of services available for people
affected by forcible removal, especially access to personal and family
records and assistance for family reunions.
(c) What principles would justify compensation?
The Inquiry was asked to report on what principles
would justify compensation for forcible removal.
(d) The causes of removals today [1997]:
The Inquiry was asked to look at the causes of removals of Indigenous
children from their families today and how these can be prevented. The
Inquiry's focus was on the juvenile justice and child welfare systems of
every state and territory. The Inquiry also considered adoption and family
law.
The Inquiry was asked to take into account the principle of
self-determination. Self-determination is a collective human
right of peoples. It can mean many things:
Freedom from political and economic domination by others;
Self-government;
And the freedom to make decisions about family, community, culture and
country.
It can take many forms, from regional agreements to community
constitutions, depending on each community's needs and aspirations.
Today's Australians sometimes indignantly say: "Why should we apologise
for something we aren't responsible for? They miss the point - individual
Australians are not required to provide the apology - they don't have
anything to apologise for.
It was today's Australian's who - forty years ago, in a referendum of 27
May 1967, approved two amendments to the Australian constitution relating
to Indigenous Australians to recognise them as Australian citizens with
equal rights.
After being approved in the referendum this became law on the 10th August
that year. The amendment was overwhelmingly endorsed, winning 90.77% of
voters and carrying all six states.
The apology is being provided by the Australian Government in recognition
of policies of past governments. Similarly, the former Australian
Government apologised to Vietnam veterans for the policies of previous
governments.
The current Government is apologising for wrongful policies of former
governments, and so it should do. No individual Australian is being
asked to take personal responsibility for actions of past governments.
It isn't complicated.
Best wishes
David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 10:32 on 2008-Feb-01
Message sent using WinPack-Telnet V6.70
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