Today is a momentous day in the history of Australia
Never has it been a greater honour to be a new Australian
The Prime Minister of this country has as the first act of
the newly elected parliament said SORRY
Sorry to what had happened to all Aboriginals
Sorry in particular to those tens of thousands who were as children
forcibly removed from their families to be never returned.
Why report here?
It goes to the core of our work
Constellation principles applied
please read for yourself
the full text of Kevin Rudd'd speech is to be found in:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudds-sorry-speech/2008/02/13/1202760379056.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
below are some of the highlights
with great joy from
Alemka and Max
Melbourne, Australia
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There is something terribly primal about these firsthand accounts. The
pain is searing; it screams from the pages. The hurt, the humiliation, the
degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a
mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most
elemental humanity.
These stories cry out to be heard; they cry out for an apology.
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As has been said of settler societies elsewhere, we are the bearers of
many blessings from our ancestors; therefore we must also be the bearer of
their burdens as well.
Therefore, for our nation, the course of action is clear: that is, to deal
now with what has become one of the darkest chapters in Australia's
history.
In doing so, we are doing more than contending with the facts, the
evidence and the often rancorous public debate.
In doing so, we are also wrestling with our own soul.
This is not, as some would argue, a black-armband view of history; it is
just the truth: the cold, confronting, uncomfortable truth - facing it,
dealing with it, moving on from it.
Until we fully confront that truth, there will always be a shadow hanging
over us and our future as a fully united and fully reconciled people.
It is time to reconcile. It is time to recognise the injustices of the
past. It is time to say sorry. It is time to move forward together.
To the stolen generations, I say the following: as Prime Minister of
Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the parliament of Australia, I am sorry.
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I know that, in offering this apology on behalf of the government and the
parliament, there is nothing I can say today that can take away the pain
you have suffered personally.
Whatever words I speak today, I cannot undo that.
Words alone are not that powerful; grief is a very personal thing.
I ask those non-indigenous Australians listening today who may not fully
understand why what we are doing is so important to imagine for a moment
that this had happened to you.
I say to honourable members here present: imagine if this had happened to
us. Imagine the crippling effect. Imagine how hard it would be to forgive.
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Mr Speaker, today the parliament has come together to right a great wrong.
We have come together to deal with the past so that we might fully embrace
the future. We have had sufficient audacity of faith to advance a pathway
to that future, with arms extended rather than with fists still clenched.
So let us seize the day. Let it not become a moment of mere sentimental
reflection.
Let us take it with both hands and allow this day, this day of national
reconciliation, to become one of those rare moments in which we might just
be able to transform the way in which the nation thinks about itself,
whereby the injustice administered to the stolen generations in the name
of these, our parliaments, causes all of us to reappraise, at the deepest
level of our beliefs, the real possibility of reconciliation writ large:
reconciliation across all indigenous Australia; reconciliation across the
entire history of the often bloody encounter between those who emerged
from the Dreamtime a thousand generations ago and those who, like me, came
across the seas only yesterday; reconciliation which opens up whole new
possibilities for the future.
It is for the nation to bring the first two centuries of our settled
history to a close, as we begin a new chapter. We embrace with pride,
admiration and awe these great and ancient cultures we are truly blessed
to have among us cultures that provide a unique, uninterrupted human
thread linking our Australian continent to the most ancient prehistory of
our planet.
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Max Dauskardt
max@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Max Dauskardt
max@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
