Living Memory

Audio slideshow: Stolen generations in their own words from the Sydney Morning Herald.

ABC - Sorry

"Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will use the word "sorry" three times when he apologises to the Stolen Generations in Parliament tomorrow."
A live telecast on the ABC from Parliament House, presented by Tony Jones and Miriam Corowa.

Bringing them home...

"Bringing them home: The 'Stolen Children' report (1997)"

Indigenous children have been forcibly removed from their families and communities since the very first days of the European occupation of Australia.

In that time, not one Indigenous family has escaped the effects. Most families have been affected in one or more generations by the removal of one or more children. Nationally, the Inquiry concludes that between one in three and one in ten Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970.

The National Inquiry was established by the federal Attorney General in 1995. It was conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC).

Historic Ceremony

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Aborigines in white body paint danced and sang traditional songs in Australia's national Parliament on Tuesday in a historic ceremony many hoped would mark a new era of race relations in the country.
The ceremony was the government's symbolic recognition, for the first time, that the land on which Australia's capital was built was once owned by Aborigines, and was taken away without compensation by European settlers.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will offer a formal apology to thousands of Aborigines who were taken from their families as children under now discredited assimilation policies abolished in 1970 _ an act that many people view as a vital step toward reconciling black and white Australians.
With faces and bodies white and traditional digeridoos blowing a deep drone in the background, Aborigines of the Ngunnawal tribe called on their ancestor spirits to welcome newcomers to Parliament in a ceremony held in a hall of the national legislature.
Rudd accepted the gift of a traditional «message stick» of welcome from Ngunnawal elder Matilda House.

Rudd Tables Apology

Prime Minister Rudd has tabled the long awaited apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, especially those taken from their families, communities.

"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry," the text reads.

"To the mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

"And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

He says it is a first step where the Parliament resolves the injustices of the past must never happen again.

"A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity," the text reads.

"A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have changed.

"A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

"A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country."

Historic apology

7.30 Report - Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 7:29 AEDT. Expires: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 7:29 AEDT
"Historian and author Jackie Huggins, academic and anthropologist Marcia Langton, and director of Reconciliation Australia Fred Chaney reflect on the significance of Wednesday's apology to the Stolen Generations."