16th anniversary of the Apology to Indigenous Australians

Sixteen years on from Kevin Rudd’s historic apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, ANDY HAMILTON SJ argues words can’t be unsaid, but can be disregarded – reminding us of the importance of respect and restoration.

This year, all aspects of the relationship between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians will be seen through the lens of the failure of the Referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. This include such historical events as the Apology made by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Stolen Generations on 13 February 2008. This invites us to build again on the rock on which it was constructed.

The Apology was significant because it embodied respect. It also acknowledged a moral code governing the relationships between the representatives of government and persons of any origin and descent. Both parties to the Apology acknowledged that this code had been violated when children were taken from their families. The Apology, too, implied, a pledge that respect would govern future relationships based on the common and equal humanity shared by both parties.

In the Apology, the Prime Minister spoke on behalf of all Australians in recognising that governments acted wrongly in removing First Nations children from their parents. The removal was dictated by the disrespectful and discriminatory assumption that the children, their parents and their families were of a lesser human value, and so deserving of lesser respect, because of their race. This disrespect caused lasting damage to the children and families, both because of the separation, and because of the humiliation that went with it.

The Apology can never be unsaid. It can, however, be disregarded. For that reason, it continues to be important. It is a measuring stick by which both parliamentary behaviour and the treatment of First Nations Australians can be judged. At the time it highlighted the disrespect underlying the election-driven Intervention that preceded the Apology and the subsequent humiliating and disempowering measures directed against Indigenous communities.

The dignity, seriousness and non-partisan spirit of the Apology also stood in judgment over the rancorous disregard of Parliamentary conventions, lack of seriousness and courtesy so often displayed and so widely criticised in subsequent years. Though not driven directly by racially biased ideology, the disproportionate rate at which First Nations children are removed from their mothers, incarcerated, and decisions are made without proper consultation with First Nations communities, indicates a serious institutional lack of respect.

The years since the Apology have shown heartening signs of respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their cultures, including, notable, the Voice to Parliament referendum.

The conduct of the Referendum revealed legitimate differences of opinion about the wisdom of the change it embodied. It also, however, revealed a level of denial of the wrongs suffered by First Nations peoples and of their lasting effects in institutional disrespect. The anniversary of the Apology calls us back to the path of respect.