Australia stops to say sorry

I wonder whether today will be another one of those moments “I can remember where I was when”.

I was at home with my kids watching the televised apology. If you aren’t aussie, and want to know what was going on today here , go visit this site http://www.sgalliance.org.au/

About time. Although I found some of Brendan Nelson’s inclusions in his speech today odd, to say the least (didn’t he know today was about saying sorry? Not to quibble over policy, for instance?) – how wonderful was it to see both sides of parliament join in the apology today, especially there was a time there when we thought we would never see it happen?

Yes, so much more needs to be done. But sorry is always a very good start. Even my 3 year old could understand that as I explained it to him this morning.

I added my apology to my facebook status today, and I join many other bloggers in adding a sorry post too. You hear people say that they weren’t responsible. Well, I am Australian, and my country was responsible – for that I am deeply sorry. I am also a white anglo-saxon Australian – I personally benefit from the social inequity in our society in which an indigenous person may expect 17 less years of life on average. For that I am very sorry.

You also hear people say that the past generations who were responsible had good intentions. There are a couple of things to say to that. Firstly, it wasn’t that long ago. The policies that resulted in the stolen generations only ended about 1970. Secondly, people of good intention need to always be ready to say sorry when they cause harm, even if they did not mean to. Their intentions may somewhat explain what happened, but they do not excuse it. I am the descendent of Australians who lived when those policies were operative. I apologise for them. I do not know what they did at the time, whether they were actively involved or they passively made no protest. But whether they actively harmed or passively did not help, either sin needs an apology.

I want to tell you about my Grandma, dead now for almost 25 years. She was a loving, generous, sacrificial Christian woman. She was known for this. I remember how I thought as a child I had an extra Uncle, and I only discovered later that he was a man my grandmother took in to help him out – supposedly for 6 weeks, but it turned into years. There are many other stories like this. She was conservative politically, and I would not be surprised if she thought these policies were a good idea at the time. Certainly though, she voted for governments that enacted these policies. She was a woman of good intentions, and I’m pretty sure I know what she would want to do if she had the knowledge we have today. I’m pretty sure she would want to say sorry. As her granddaughter, I say sorry.

Now, lets try to make things better.