RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Year Later Apology to Lost Generations Looks Hollow

• by Stephen de Tarczynski (melbourne)
• Friday, February 20, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Opening a photographic exhibition titled ‘Sorry: More Than Just a Word’ at Parliament House in Canberra on Feb.13, indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said that the government had followed up the apology to indigenous Australians with practical measures.

The exhibition features the work of leading indigenous photographers, Wayne Quilliam and Merv Bishop.

'In the year since the apology was delivered in this parliament we have supported a range of projects for the Stolen Generations,' declared Macklin, employing the term to describe indigenous Australians forcibly removed as children from their families and communities by authorities.

This was a practice undertaken 'from the very first days of the European occupation of Australia,' according to the landmark ‘Bringing Them Home’ report of the inquiry into stolen children, released in 1997.

The surviving Stolen Generations were the main targets of the apology issued by Rudd on Feb.13 last year.

Although Macklin acknowledged that 'there is still much to be done to build trust between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia,' she listed several projects enacted by the government to support the apology.

These include commemorations for National Sorry Day - a nationally-recognised day since 1998 that acknowledges the wrongs inflicted upon indigenous people through forced removals - more counsellors and case workers in line with the ‘Bringing Them Home’ report’s recommendations, the further collection and publication of the oral histories of Stolen Generations, and the Indigenous Healing Forum which recognises the impact of grieving and trauma on indigenous Australians.

But while the Rudd government has been eager to show that the apology is being reinforced with action - Macklin also announced the establishment of 'a Foundation to provide practical and innovative healing services' for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - dissenting voices are also being heard.

Jackie Baxter, from the Central Australian Stolen Generations and Families Aboriginal Corporation, describes the apology and its first anniversary as analogous to large birthday celebrations.

'You have this massive birthday and then for the rest of the year you stagnate. And then the following year you have another birthday,' Baxter told IPS by phone from Alice Springs, the largest town in central Australia.

While she says that the apology was 'a momentous occasion,' Baxter is not impressed by what the government has done since. 'Nothing happened after the apology, people are still not considered for compensation or reparations,' she says.

One of the recommendations made in ‘Bringing Them Home’ was the call for monetary compensation for Stolen Generations as part of reparations 'in recognition of the history of gross violations of human rights,' yet the Rudd government remains steadfast in its opposition to establishing a compensation fund.

Prominent indigenous activist and lawyer Michael Mansell, who has argued that 'nothing has changed' in the year since the apology, has contrasted the Rudd government’s refusal to make monetary reparations to Stolen Generations with its quick response to the recent bushfires in Victoria, where emergency assistance worth millions of dollars is currently being provided.

Amnesty International Australia also hit out at the government, calling on Rudd 'to develop a national plan for reparation' for the Stolen Generations.

But Debra Hocking, Aboriginal co-chair of the Stolen Generations Alliance, a national representative and advocacy organisation, argues that state governments should provide the compensation rather than federal authorities.

'Under the ‘Bringing Them Home’ recommendations it was a federal compensation scheme. However, I still maintain that the removals that were conducted in each state were done by the state and they are the people who should be responsible for compensation,' she says.

Tasmania established an Australian dollar (AUD) five million (3.1 million US dollar) compensation fund in 2006 and Western Australia set up its AUD 114 million dollars ( 72 million) ‘Redress WA Scheme’ in 2007 to compensate people who, as children, were abused or neglected while in state care. Up to three thousand Stolen Generation members are believed to have been held in state institutions in Western Australia from 1920.

The commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice - part of the Australian Human Rights Commission, a statutory body - Tom Calma, has also spoken of his desire for more action to back-up the apology.

He said that the hope which accompanied the apology one year ago remains and that indigenous Australians 'must continue to hold that hope high and continue to work with governments around Australia to put ‘flesh on the bones’ of the national apology.'

While he supports the 'terrific' initiatives set up by the government in the twelve months since as well as efforts to address the massive life expectancy and general health gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians - indigenous Australians’ life expectancy is currently around 17 years less than their non-indigenous counterparts - Calma is critical of the continued suspension of the Northern Territory’s Racial Discrimination Act.

The legislation was suspended as part of the government’s controversial intervention into Aboriginal communities, which purports to combat the sexual abuse and neglect of indigenous children in the territory.

Hocking told IPS that 'it might be seen as hypocritical' that the apology and related projects are being hailed at the same time that the government has backed and initiated extensive measures of control through the intervention in the targeted communities.

But despite being critical of the intervention, particularly the suspension of the racial discrimination legislation, Hocking argues that each policy 'has to be taken on its [own] merit.'

And overall, she remains satisfied with the progress made since Rudd, representing the Australian nation, including past and present governments, said 'sorry.'

'I think we’ve started in a good place, where we needed to start. We can’t jump in and all of a sudden fix everything in 12 months,' says Hocking.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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