Apologising-in-action: on saying ‘sorry’ to Indigenous Australians

Abstract

Talk about apologising, about saying sorry, has been at the forefront of national concern in Australia over the past ten years. In April 1997, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission tabled the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families , a report that generated unprecedented public debate concerning the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples throughout Australia's history. The National Inquiry concluded that the systematic separation of generations of Indigenous children (what came to be called ‘the stolen generations’) constituted ‘a gross violation of … human rights’ and ‘an act of genocide contrary to the Convention of Genocide ratified by Australia in 1949’ (HREOC, 1997: 27). Among the many recommendations of the report was that ‘everyone affected by forcible removals should be entitled to reparation [including] the children who were forcibly removed, their families, communities, children and grandchildren’ (ibid.: 29). One specific recommendation for reparation was as follows: That all Australian parliaments … negotiate with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission a form of words for official apologies to Indigenous individuals, families and communities and extend those apologies with wide and culturally appropriate publicity. (Ibid.: 36) Since then, text and talk about the appropriateness of apologising to Indigenous Australians for past injustices has appeared on a regular basis in national and local print media, on television and radio, in organised community meetings and in everyday discussions between ordinary people.