How thrilled I am that Kevin Rudd has chosen to make today ‘Sorry Day’. I stumbled in to work late, but just in time to join a small crowd of my colleagues around the TV to watch the speech live. I’m glad to know I will always remember where and when I was for this little piece of history. Finally a good piece of history, an event only a little less fabulous than the last general election - we are being spoilt! And what a fantastic speech it was!
And it’s not before time. As a European (and I do consider myself as such when it suits me) I am frankly amazed that it’s taken this long. As a former history student, too. I remember my long-distant student days, reading about African slavery, Viking conquest and genocide. I’d always think, “It couldn’t happen now”, though lecturers and fellow students often disagreed. I just couldn’t believe that anyone in the West would let things like that – the wars against the Native Americans, some of Britain’s behaviour in India, etc – happen today. At least, not in quite the barbaric way they did. I took it as read that the descendants of the perpetrators (eg modern day British and Americans) considered it reprehensible. I believed and still believe that we share this consciousness of wrongdoing as a common and shared cultural history. We don't question that it was wrong, and that's how it should be.
Yet in Australia, I’ve come to learn that so many of the outrages committed against the Aborigines are recent history, easily within living memory, and so many Australians aren’t sorry even today. It blows me away that this can happen in our time. It’s taught me that perhaps the only reason we British aren’t still committing atrocities in our empire is because we haven’t got one. The only reason we’re officially sorry for what we did (and by officially sorry, I mean it’s taught as the standard version of history in our schools) is because we don’t have the opportunity to do it any more, so we might as well express regret. I'm forced to believe that human nature, even 21st century, Western human nature, is still so easily capable of evil.
I was forced to face this even at work today. As I walked into the office this morning I overheard a few bits of conversations, sneering and disapproving of the apology. And I wondered if these were really my suit-wearing, video conference-attending, iPod-owning colleagues, or instead visiting eighteenth century explorers bent on ‘harrying the land’, as my old English history textbook would have put it, completely without moral concerns. Do they not know how shocking their views are to international observers? Come on, Australia! People like me like to think that atrocities couldn’t happen in our countries, in this day and age. They were committed a long time ago, by bad people. Do not disillusion us, please!
I hope the apology can go to some length to ease the hurt that the Aboriginal people feel. Refusing to apologise made the previous government(s) look like a spoiled child who has done something wrong, then by repeatedly refusing to apologise, made it much, much worse. ‘Sorry’, as so many people have said, can ease the victim’s hurt and means they can let go and move on. A stubborn refusal to say sorry says something rather terrible about the wrongdoer.
I was going to write more, in fact I did, but I just deleted it all because I don’t think the world needs another massive essay on this subject. Even if it does, I have no interest in writing essays unless they’re going to be graded with a view to me getting a shiny new degree (hi DIMIA, please give me my permanent residency so I can study!).
So let me finish by saying thank you to Kevin Rudd, for your intelligent and perceptive speech. It was insightful and sensitive, and I thrummed with joy and sadness to hear them. Australians should be pleased and relieved. Now perhaps the British government can echo the sentiment?
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2 comments:
Thank YOU for putting into words so much of what I was feeling that day.
I got into soooo many arguments both online and off over this issue, and I am still stunned to my very core, that some people I know and used to respect feel that it is totally unnecessary to say sorry.
I cried, I screamed, I hurled abuse and lost my fucking mind! You see, my dad's sister married an Aboriginal man. I have Aboriginal cousins and have spent many a school holiday on Kempsey Mission with them, hearing the stories, experiencing the prejudice and hurt through their eyes and I am so very passionate about Aboriginal affairs.
What should have been a joyous, uplifting day was for me, sad and heartbreaking.
The only highlight was Ruddies speech, and speaking to my cousins on the phone when they told me how their nan was the happiest she'd been in decades.
It was a geat morning, wasn't it.
I'm glad you enjoyed the post; I wasn't sure anyone would actually read it!
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