the apology
February 5th 2008 01:58
I have been reading a week old newspaper all morning. Not through any real drive, more of a boredom from endless TV I tend to watch when on uni break. I am horrified. I know the paper usually brings nothing but badly spun inaccurate news but, never he less, my emotions have been shaken, again. I read an article about the upcoming Rudd Government apology to the stolen generation. Now this issue has plagued Australia since my birth some 20 years ago and still it seems hotter than ever. You see among us normal citizens the indigenous situation in this country does not seem to be an issue of great importance and this apology seems only to be fuelling the never ending fire. But for me it’s a different thing. I believe that the federal government’s handling of the catastrophic series of events that have forever blackened out nation’s history created a greatly disadvantaged, secondary culture. I am a firm believer that an apology is necessary, not because it is long overdue (I do not believe the excuse of “we did not do it therefore why should we apologize”) but because it is fundamental to the healing of not only the indigenous psyche but to the national one as well.
There has now become a situation where the indigenous Australians have become marked by litigious stereotypes. These stereotypes are degrading as much as they are mythologized, yet they are altogether perpetuated by the government’s longstanding decision to ignore the past, to cement it in time as if it had never occurred. Sure the Rudd government will likely blunder in some way when attempting to make the long awaited apology, however I believe that it is about time our government did at least that: attempt it. The apology will mark a difference, a change perhaps even a transformation and that’s got to be better then what we’ve got!
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