News Archive
Opinion: In praise of sorry
13 February 2008
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister, Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today said sorry to Australia's "stolen generation."
The film, Rabbit Proof Fence, movingly portrayed the trauma of removing so-called half-caste aborigine children (in official terms, children of mixed lineage) from their families to assimilate them into white culture. The scene where a government welfare man chases down two sisters in his car is difficult to forget. The girls and their mother are distraught.
So many families were torn apart. It's estimated at least 50,000 children were stolen--for their "protection"--over a 60-year period ending in the early 1970s. So many among the stolen generation became scarred for life. So many lost their identity, not knowing who they are or where they belong.
Did it help? It's true a few were saved from physical and emotional harm by being taken from their families.
Was it well intentioned? It seems so, but that doesn't make it right. This was a bad government policy. It's appropriate the Australian government recognises the realities this policy created and to say sorry--even if it could distance itself from responsibility.
There are risks, of course. There are already hints of compensation claims. This is to be expected. However it's couched, saying sorry is an admission. That can't be avoided. With all the care the prime minister and his government are taking over this, we wait to see if claims get to court.
Sometimes, though, we need to take the risk to do the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do. Saying sorry is the right thing to do, the Christian thing to do.
Kevin Rudd is right when he says there can be no "healing of the nation" unless there's reconciliation. How can we walk together when some Australians are living in the pain caused by other Australians?
Today's Sorry Day is a moment to make us proud of being Australian.
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