Why should we say sorry to the Stolen Generation?
Why should we say sorry to the Stolen Generation?
These formal apologies were an important step towards building a respectful new relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Many Stolen Generations members felt that their pain and suffering was acknowledged and that the nation understood the need to right the wrongs of the past.
When did Australia say sorry for the stolen generation?
13 February 2008
On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and Indigenous assimilation.
When did we say sorry to the Stolen Generation?
The National Apology On 13 February 2008, he offered a formal apology to members of the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian parliament. Crowds of people across Australia watched the Apology on big screens in their own cities and towns.
Who was the prime minister who said sorry?
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What is the 2008 apology?
On 13 February 2008, the Parliament of Australia issued a formal apology to Indigenous Australians for forced removals of Australian Indigenous children (often referred to as the Stolen Generations) from their families by Australian federal and state government agencies.
Who stopped the stolen generation?
The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments.
What was the 2008 apology?
Who caused the Stolen Generation?
How was the stolen generation stopped?
The NSW Aborigines Protection Board loses its power to remove Indigenous children. The Board is renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board and is finally abolished in 1969. By 1969, all states have repealed the legislation allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children under the policy of ‘protection’.
What was the aim of the apology?
The practice was genocidal in its intent insofar as it aimed at assimilating those children into non-Indigenous, ‘European’ culture – thereby accelerating the disappearance of Aboriginal cultures, communities and, eventually, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
How did Stolen Generation End?
Why did the stolen generation end?
Efforts to make stolen children reject their culture often created a sense of shame about being of Indigenous heritage. This resulted in a disconnection from culture, and an inability to pass culture on to their children. Many children were wrongly told that their parents were abusive, had died or had abandoned them.
What is the apology to the stolen generation?
On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and Indigenous assimilation.
Who refused sorry to the Stolen Generation?
Opposition leader Brendan Nelson’s speech – which rejected calls for compensation for the stolen generations – was less popular. At Melbourne’s Federation Square, onlookers turned their backs on his telecast, just as they did 11 years earlier at the Australian Reconciliation Convention.
What is the message of the Stolen Generation?
The idea expressed by A. O. Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines for Western Australia, and others as late as 1930 was that mixed-race children could be trained to work in white society, and over generations would marry white and be assimilated into the society.
Why did John Howard refused to say sorry?
Among its many recommendations was one that the Prime Minister apologise to the Stolen Generations. Prime Minister John Howard refused to do so, stating that he “did not subscribe to the black armband view of history”.
How did the stolen generation start?
Between 1910 and the 1970s*, many First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of various government policies. The generations of children removed under these policies became known as the Stolen Generations.
Who started Sorry Day?
Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tabled a motion in parliament on February 13, 2008, apologizing to Australia’s Indigenous people, particularly the Stolen Generations and their families and communities, for the laws and policies that inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss.
Why was Kevin Rudd’s apology important?
On 13 February 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd moved a motion of Apology to Indigenous Australians. The apology was the new parliament’s first order of business; Rudd became the first Australian Prime Minister to publicly apologise to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Australian federal government.