Kevin Rudd has finally said “Sorry” to the Stolen Generation, but is his intention behind further reconciling with the Indigenous Population actually just dispossession in disguise? Anna Fitzpatrick investigates.
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t was a three hundred and sixty one word speech which he made last for half of an hour; a speech which surprisingly won the audience over with meaningless but intellectual excuses and a speech which repeated the word “Sorry” an unforgiveable number of times. Nevertheless, on Wednesday 13th February, on behalf of the nation, the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, finally made a feeble attempt to say “Sorry” to the Indigenous Stolen Generation.
The Past
Ever since the era of the Stolen Generation ended in 1969, Australia has swept their mistakes, involving Indigenous issues, well under the carpet of denial. Now, forty years on, Australia has unveiled and acknowledged what actually happened and according to Rudd, hopefully concluded this “unfinished business” once and for all.
The term, “Stolen Generation” was given to the many generations of Aboriginal children who were taken away from their families by governments, churches and welfare bodies, to be raised in institutions or fostered out to white Australian families. This began in 1909, when the Aboriginal Protection Act gave the Aboriginal Protection Board legal sanction to take half-caste Aboriginal children from their families.
Until 1969, this practice was official government policy in Australia, but why was it deemed necessary? Since the occupation of Australia by the British, Indigenous Communities have constantly been oppressed. For hundreds of years, Aborigines have been viewed as inferior to the remainder of Australian society. In addition to being paid significantly lower wages to the average Australian worker along with no freedom of speech, Aborigines have never been accepted in society.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, with the intention of occupying land, the Australian state governments began to set aside specific areas for Aborigines. As these communities received very little governmental support, the land was usually sold to white settlers, consequently, forcing many Aborigines to relocate with their families.
Not long after this period of reclaiming land, the Australian Government began to believe that many Indigenous mothers and fathers were incapable of caring for their children. Alcohol abuse, child abuse and neglect were very prominent issues, existing among the Indigenous population. As they were said to be “concerned” for the children’s welfare, with the support of the nation, the Australian Government began to remove the youth from their families. So that is why they placed the children in institutions were they were physically and sexually abused, experienced poor living conditions, starvation and no contact with their families. We trusted that they had their best interests at heart…
Cruel Intentions
For years, based on their poor life expectancy, many past Australian Governments have claimed that the Indigenous population would eventually “die out”, leaving no adults to care for the younger generation. Placing a negative light on the matter, what a wonderful, once in a lifetime opportunity, this would have been for the Australian Government to attempt to integrate the futures of both cultures. As psychological studies have shown, it is a lot easier to manipulate the beliefs of a child than it is of an adult, especially if they are taken out of their usual surroundings and placed into the unknown. So, with these intentions, this is what the Australian Government did. Little did they know, in forty years time, they would be standing in front of generations of many Indigenous families who were destroyed and ripped apart by the government’s incredibly immoral decision.
Too Little, Too Late
On the surface, Kevin Rudd’s Sorry Speech seems to be a job well done. Nevertheless, reading between the lines hints at a hidden agenda that when revealed, is unbelievable, disturbing, and coated in betrayal. The giveaway of this hidden intention lies within the first few minutes of Rudd’s speech. The real objective of the “sorry” speech is revealed when Rudd states, “That is why the parliament is today here assembled: to deal with this unfinished business of the nation, to remove a great stain from the nation’s soul and, in a true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia.” (Rudd, 2008.) This single sentence opens the door to controversy. Was Kevin Rudd’s real intention, to only polish the tarnished reputation of Australia? Is his idea of dealing with this “unfinished business” opening a new, final chapter in Australia’s history? Will the book close with Australians denying all responsibility for Aborigines?
After all, the word, “sorry” does not, in anyway accept responsibility for any action, it only implies sympathy to the people affected by that action. As stated by Sally Warhaft, a well known critique of famous speeches, “Generally, Australians do not consider theirs as an oral culture. Talk, we believe, is a substitute for action, rather than a catalyst for it.” (2006) If this is the case, then why didn’t the Australian Government say “sorry” to the Stolen Generation by actually taking physical action and supplying them with houses, schools, medical attention and educational facilities? Yes, this does take a lot of planning, effort and time, but surely forty years is enough time? Or, could the real reason for the government refusing to physically improve Indigenous Communities be the fact that they do not want to have anything to do with them? Perhaps Kevin Rudd thought that the definition of reconciliation was to dispossess a group of people and their culture from mainstream Australia.
Ignoring The Present
Throughout the half an hour that the speech lasted, Kevin Rudd did not once refer to the present situation facing the Indigenous Community. Not once did he refer to today and not once did her refer to tomorrow. Instead, he referred to “five years from now”, in which he promised to have every child in education by the age of four, reducing infant mortality rates and “closing the gap”. Rudd, throughout his speech, names “the guiding principles of this new partnership on closing the gap” as being “respect, cooperation and mutual responsibility”. Even so, it can only be in Rudd’s world that the careful use of the phrase “mutual responsibility” is based on the concept of – ‘it’s our responsibility to give you the money; it’s your responsibility regarding what you do with it.’ – Allowing the present to become the future is one of the most irresponsible things the Australian Government could do. After all, the Sorry Speech is based on previous governments allowing that to happen in the past. So, how can the future possibly be dealt with if the present isn’t dealt with first? The disturbing realisation is that if past mistakes are allowed to become the mistakes of the future, one of the world’s oldest and most fascinating cultures will continue to be decimated.
Misleading the Future
Within Kevin Rudd’s three hundred and sixty one word speech, there was not a single word which could have encouraged forgiveness, trust or even faith in the Australian Government from the Indigenous Communities. Rudd’s intention to reconcile with the Stolen Generation is a deliberate attempt to further dispossess the Aboriginal Community from Australia, disowning them from society; physically, removing them as the stain from mainstream Australia. Even though one would like to believe that Rudd had every good intention when delivering his speech, this is not a realistic view, as the past has shown, that the future integration of both Australians and Aborigines will be an extremely arduous, if not an impossible, task. Hence, it is understandable why Rudd is taking the easy option and reconciling in the form of dispossession as clearly, if the Australian Government isn’t capable of dealing with the present Indigenous situation, they will never be capable of dealing with the future.
