Kevin Rudd Apology Australia

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s public apology to the indigenous people of Australia is a key event in Australia’s history. It apologised for the past mistreatment of Aboriginals. It apologised for the Stolen Generations and their families. It apologised for ‘the laws and policies of successive governments that inflicted grief, suffering and loss on these, our fellow Australians.’ However, the scars still remain. Aside from the apology that was given, nothing else was done to help the Aboriginals, not even any compensation was given to the victims. A vocal apology was all they got. The rights and freedoms of the Aboriginal people didn’t change because of Kevin Rudd’s apology. No laws were changed, no new policies were made. Nothing.

The apology,

specifically, was targeted towards the victims of The Stolen Generation and their families. The Stolen Generation refers to the mass removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (Australian Government, 2009). It was stated in the Bringing Them Home Report that ‘between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families between 1910 and 1970…’ (Australian Government, 2009). In the apology, it said that, “We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country” (Rudd, 2008). From the parliament’s perspective, especially the Prime Minister himself, they see this as a great opportunity for Australia to forgive and forget their wrong doing in the past. However, from the public’s perspective, a person declared themselves ‘very proud’ of Mr Rudd for apologising, although they also took into account the fact that the Government refused to compensate people that were taken from their families (Stolengenerations.info, 2015). The past events that Kevin Rudd apologised for in his speech did not cover up the fact that no extra help or any compensation was given to the Aboriginal families that were affected by this mistreatment of human life.
The formal apology was given on Wednesday February 18th 2008 (Australian Government, 2009), however, can an apology be accepted after almost 100 years since the beginning of the Stolen Generation? In the Brining Them Home report, tabled in 1997, it stated that ‘Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families since the very first days of European occupation’ (Australian Government, 2009). Although, The Stolen Generations were the many aboriginal children that were taken between 1910 and 1970. By the 1980’s, the government came to grips with the situation at hand and reappraised the removal and placement practice of indigenous children. After 100 years since the beginning of the Stolen Generation, only a written apology was given as compensation to the indigenous people of Australia. For their pain and suffering, for their anguish and heartbreak, for their loss of a family member, to the government.

Although, this raises another question.

Was Kevin Rudd’s apology solely directed to the Stolen Generations themselves? In Rudd’s speech, it says that, ‘We apologise to the mothers and the fathers, the bothers and the sisters, for the breaking up families and communities, we say sorry…’ (Rudd, 2008). This can infer that not only the children that were part of the Stolen Generation were been apologised to. It was also directed to the families of the indigenous children. This apology can also be focused towards any indigenous person or child that was forcibly removed from their families, not just since the start of the Stolen Generation, but ever since the first days of European occupation. It also states in the apology that any descendant of those that were taken by the government were apologised to. This can be assumed that any person linked to the Stolen Generations was being said sorry to, if not, the entire indigenous population of Australia. Though it would make sense that all Australians were being apologised to since the term ‘All Australians’ was used several times in Kevin Rudd’s speech, for example, ‘…laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians’ and ‘…we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous’ (Rudd, 2008). However, no compensation was given to help the Indigenous people directly affected by successive government’s

actions.
There was no compensation given by the government to the Indigenous people as part of the apology to the Stolen Generations, however, was anything at all gained by the Aboriginal people?

The harsh reality is that on the day of the apology, half a million Indigenous Australian were still living in Third World conditions (Treatyrepublic.net, 2015). In 1980 after the reappraisal of the removal and placement of Indigenous children, ‘Link-Up’ was established, it was the main agency that dealt with Indigenous family tracing and family reunions (Australian Government, 2009). Between 1980 and 1994, the agency reunited more than 1,000 individuals to their families (Australian Government, 2009). This was followed by Sorry Day in 1998, where hundreds of thousands of signatures were received to apologise to the Indigenous, The Corroboree 2000 Bridge Walk, which was where over 250,000 people were walked to support Indigenous Australians and the National Day of Healing in 2005 (Australian Government, 2009). The National Day of Healing renamed Sorry Day as a day of healing for all Australians, it was said that the day will focus on the healing needed throughout Australian society if reconciliation is to be achieved (Australian Government, 2009). Although much was gained in the past in respect to the Stolen Generations and the families affected, no judicial, legal or political rights were given to support those

affected.
The reality for the Indigenous and Aboriginal people of Australia is, nothing was given as part of the 2008 apology to help the Stolen Generations and their families cope with the situation they have had for almost 100 years. No laws were changed to help support them, no new policies were made, not even a cent out of the government as compensation as part of the apology. The rights and freedoms of the Indigenous people of Australia did not change because of Kevin Rudd’s apology.