Australian parliament apologises

[Claire Bowern]

The apology issue has a history in Australia. It dates back at least to 
the tabling of the 1996 'Bringing them Home' report in federal 
parliament, where one of the recommendations was a formal apology, by 
the federal government, for the policies of institutionalised racism 
which decimated families and communities. The report was commissioned 
shortly after the first repudiation of Terra Nullius (before that, 
Australia had been assumed in law to be uninhabited country because 
Aboriginal people did not have a formal system of land tenure. It was 
finally seen to be rubbish in 1990). The former Prime Miniature refused 
to issue an apology on the grounds that it would be an admission of 
responsibility, and he felt he had nothing to apologise for. (There is 
an Australian actor with the same name as the former PM who apologised 
in 2000 on his behalf...)

This apology is a formal recognition of the wrongs of past Australian 
governments and the damage that those policies did to Australia as a 
whole (in legitimising racism), but particularly also to the lives it 
destroyed.

We all hope very much that this is the start of something good, and not 
the end of the issue. It's too early to say but from what I've seen so 
far there is more government goodwill for change and cooperation, and 
more openmindedness for new policy initiatives, than we've seen for a 
long time. There may even be a willingness to stick to something long 
enough to see if it works. I wasn't too hopeful a few weeks ago but even 
from the other side of the world I can see a change in attitude. Of 
course, goodwill costs nothing, but we didn't even have that before! 
Fingers crossed!

Claire