Some of the most common search terms for Australia’s National Apology Day canvas fairly rudimentary questions about the event – despite it happening less than two decades ago.
Even my own memory struggled to recall specific details and the full background to this important and emotive piece of our modern history.
The realisation troubled me – to the extent I thought it worthwhile to reflect on what the anniversary of this event represents.
In consultation with UniSC’s Buranga Centre staff, I looked at some of the most common search terms and tried to provide adequate answers.
Here are the results.
What is National Apology Day?
Before the apology, there was the Bringing Them Home Report – the product of a landmark national inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.
The tabling of the report into Australia’s Federal Parliament on 26 May 1997 was a milestone moment – especially for the Stolen Generations, who up until that point had not received any formal or widespread acknowledgment of the wrongdoings committed against them by successive governments and the generational pain it had caused.
As a small side note, National Sorry Day – seperate to the National Apology – was established to commemorate the date the Bringing Them Home Report was tabled in Parliament. It marks the start of Reconciliation Week.
During the preceding inquiry, which ran from 1995-1997, more than 500 submissions were received from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about the thousands of children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities by churches, welfare organisations and governments between 1910 and 1970.
Hundreds more confidential submissions were received, with the report recognising there were many others who were not able to tell their stories because they were unable to travel, uncomfortable with the public nature of the inquiry, or too frightened or traumatised to speak about their experiences.
As the Australian National Museum notes on its website:
“This last difficulty was perhaps most strongly felt by parents who had lost children and who experienced lifelong grief as well as shame for not being able to protect and keep them."
One of the 54 recommendations contained in the report was an acknowledgment and apology from Australian parliaments and police forces to the Stolen Generations.
It would be more than a decade before this happened federally.
When is National Apology Day?
On February 13, 2008, then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology in Federal Parliament to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly the Stolen Generations, on behalf of all Australians.
As noted on Parliament’s website:
“It acknowledged that ‘the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments had resulted in the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and ‘inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians’.”
The apology represented a landmark moment in Australia’s modern history – a turning point and a step towards reconciliation and healing.
Why do we celebrate National Apology Day?
Celebrate is an interesting or perhaps misguided search term – while I personally don’t believe the day is or should be celebrated, I do believe it’s crucial to remember and acknowledge the event.
The quote from George Santayana’s The Life of Reason is often referenced when referring to grim mistakes of history: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
But reflecting on the National Apology is about much more than that – it is an opportunity to educate or remind Australians about this horrific and unresolved piece of our national history.
It’s a chance to remember the stories of survivors such as Nanna Nangala Fejo, whose testimony about being forcibly removed from her family by two welfare officers and an Aboriginal stockman on horseback when she was just four years old moved the nation when it was included as part of Kevin Rudd’s apology.
Years later, Nanna Fejo’s daughter, Christine Fejo-King, told the ABC:
"Her last memory of her mother was of her crying and falling on her knees as she couldn't do anything to protect her child.”
Why is National Apology Day important?
The impact of the Stolen Generations is ongoing and far-reaching, leaving scars not just on individuals or communities but on Australia as a nation.
While sadly most of the other 54 recommendations from the Bringing Them Home report have never been enacted, the apology did pave the way for initiatives such as the Closing the Gap strategy, aimed at reducing disparities in health, education, and employment.
First tabled in the Australian Parliament in 2009, 12 reports have been now published.
Improvement in outcomes, however, has been inconsistent at best and it would take another series of articles to properly dissect the many and varied complex reasons behind this.
National Apology Day is important but it is only one small step towards truth telling, healing and reconciliation – we still have a long way to go.
As noted by the Healing Foundation, the Bringing Them Home report remains “unfinished business” almost 30 years on.
Tom Snowdon is a writer and former journalist. This article was written in consultation with, and approval from, UniSC’s Buranga Centre staff.
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