Settler-State Apologies to Indigenous Peoples: A Normative Framework and Comparative Assessment

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DURING THE PAST TWO DECADES, an increasing number of states have issued official apologies to Indigenous peoples. The first wave of state apologies to Indigenous peoples began in 1991 when Canada’s assistant deputy minister for Indian affairs offered what may have been the first governmental apology to Indigenous peoples, and the first of three apologies Canada has offered for its century-long Indian Residential Schools program that removed Indigenous children from their homes and forcibly placed them in church-run Residential Schools. Shortly thereafter, in 1993, the United States Congress issued an official apology for “the illegal overthrow” of Hawaiian sovereignty in 1893. This non–legally binding apology, a joint resolution passed by Congress and signed in a small ceremony by U.S. President Bill Clinton the very same day, acknowledged the overthrow of Hawaiian sovereignty, but it also carefully sidestepped Hawaiian sovereignty claims and did not provide any federal recognition for Native Hawaiians. In 1997 and 1998, the kings of Norway and Sweden each offered formal apologies to the Sami people for years of widespread discrimination and injustices committed against them, including forced dislocation, resettlement, and assimilation programs. Also in 1998, Canada’s Indian affairs minister Jane Stewart issued a “Statement of Reconciliation,” Canada’s second official “apology” to Aboriginal peoples, which was widely criticized by Aboriginal people as insincere and inadequate. Then, in September 2000, at a ceremony marking the 175th anniversary of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), BIA director Kevin Gover gave an apology speech expressing “profound sorrow” for the “historical conduct of this agency.” In 2008 and 2009, a fresh wave of apologies to Indigenous people washed over the Anglosphere. On February 13, 2008, Australia’s newly elected Labour prime minister Kevin Rudd opened his first session of Parliament with his government’s first official act. With crowds gathered outside and his image broadcast live on television throughout the country, the prime minister rose and delivered an official apology on behalf of the government of Australia to