First Aboriginal Member Addresses Australian Parliament
Since 1998, I have spent over sixteen months in Australia, studying and writing on a truth and reconciliation process that included a parliamentary vote that backers hoped opened a new chapter in the country’s race relations. On February 13, 2008, lawmakers unanimously passed an apology read by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on behalf of all Australians. The text read:
I move: that today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations””this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.
After wide consultation with Australia’s indigenous peoples the apology pointed a way forward in several areas. First, it acknowledged that, between 1910 and 1970, thousands of Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents and given to white families or institutions to raise. This was the product of deliberate, calculated policies of the state to force assimilation between Aboriginal and white communities and thereby deal with “the problem of the Aboriginal population.” The apology did not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australia’s citizens but acknowledged that the stories of the stolen generations must be heard.
Second, while the government ruled out compensation, it promised to fund improved education and health care facilities for Aboriginal communities. Children in some Aboriginal communities suffer poor-world rates of scabies, rheumatic fever, kidney diseases and ear infections that can cause deafness that makes schooling difficult and helps trap the next generation in a lifetime of poverty. The government also pledged to close the gap in infant mortality rate between indigenous and non-indigenous populations, up to three times higher in some Aboriginal communities than the approximate 5 in 1000 for Australia as a whole.
Third, the government resolved to involve all Australians in a relationship of mutual respect, resolve, and responsibility. It invited all Australians into an equal partnership in shaping the future as the country addresses significant challenges.
The response of Aboriginal Australians to the government’s action was mixed. While grateful that the government renounced failed policies of the past, most reacted with a been there done that attitude and awaited concrete measures that go beyond recognition of past suffering.
Two and a half years later, Aboriginal Australian friends report that such measures have generally been lacking. However, one concrete outcome is the election on September 4 of Ken Wyatt as the first Aboriginal member of Australia’s House of Representatives. The mother of Mr. Wyatt was a member of the stolen generations who spent her childhood at a Christian mission.
On September 30, wearing a kangaroo skin coat that signified the mantle of leadership, Mr. Wyatt made his maiden speech in Parliament. He expressed his sense of relief that “the healing could begin” after the apology two and a half years earlier. He lamented that nothing had significantly changed since two Aboriginal senators (Neville Bonner in 1971) and Aden Ridgeway (in 1999) outlined the aspirations of indigenous Australians.
Mr. Wyatt called on all members of parliament to be “pathfinders” to accelerate change and described education as “the great engine” of personal development. “I hope that all Australian governments continue to embrace new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.”
Mr. Wyatt’s speech reminds me that the situation of first peoples of North America is as challenging as Australia’s. During my 34-year teaching career, I regularly offered a course during which students visited First Nations communities. Often, students asked their hosts, “What can I or we do?” Always, our hosts replied, help us find resources to make health care and education available to our people. Allow our voices be heard for different priorities on the part of our governments. And look for ways to reconcile your needs with earth’s capacity.”
