Australia to apologize to Aborigines

Another noble race…Just like Africans, the Australian Aborigines have brought the world absolutely NOTHING in terms of civilizational achievements.

By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press WriterWed Jan 30, 6:30 AM ET
Australia will issue its first formal apology to its indigenous people next month, the government announced Wednesday, a milestone that could ease tensions with a minority whose mixed-blood children were once taken away on the premise that their race was doomed.

The Feb. 13 apology to the so-called “stolen generations” of
Aborigines will be the first item of business for the new Parliament,
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said. Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd, whose Labor Party won November elections, had promised to push
for an apology, an issue that has divided Australians for a decade,

“The apology will be made on behalf of the Australian government and
does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian
people,” Macklin said in a statement.

Rudd has refused demands from some Aboriginal leaders to pay
compensation for the suffering of broken families. Activist Michael
Mansell, who is legal director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Center, has
urged the government to set up an $882 million compensation fund.

Macklin did not mention compensation Wednesday. But she said she
sought broad input on the wording of the apology, which she hoped
would signal the beginning of a new relationship between Australia and
its original inhabitants, who number about 450,000 among a population
of 21 million. Aborigines are the poorest ethnic group in Australia
and are most likely to be jailed, unemployed and illiterate.

“Once we establish this respect, the government can work with
indigenous communities to improve services aimed at closing the
17-year life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians, ” she said.

Christine King of the Stolen Generations Alliance, one of the key
indigenous groups the government has consulted in crafting the
apology, said she was “overwhelmed” that a date had finally been set.

“Older people thought they would never live to see this day,” King
said through tears. “It’s very emotional for me and it’s very important.”

Australia has had a decade-long debate about how best to acknowledge
Aborigines who were affected by a string of 20th century policies that
separated mixed-blood Aboriginal children from their families — the
cohort frequently referred to as Australia’s stolen generation.

From 1910 until the 1970s, around 100,000 mostly mixed-blood
Aboriginal children were taken from their parents under state and
federal laws based on a premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and
saving the children was a humane alternative.

A national inquiry in 1997 found that many children taken from their
families suffered long-term psychological effects stemming from the
loss of family and culture.

The inquiry recommended that state and federal authorities apologize
and compensate those removed from their families. But then-Prime
Minister John Howard steadfastly refused to do either, saying his
government should not be held responsible for the policies of former
officials.

Barbara Livesey, chief executive of Reconciliation Australia, a
government-commissi oned agency tasked with bringing black and white
Australians together, said the apology on the day after Parliament
resumes for the first time since the November elections would be historic.

“It’s a moment that all Australians should feel incredibly proud of,
that we’re recognizing the mistakes of the past,” she said.

But opposition leader Brendan Nelson, whose conservative Liberal Party
was thrown out of office in November after almost 12 years in power,
questioned whether the apology deserved to be the new government’s
first item of business.