Apology 'will make a difference'

Friday, 22 February 2008 10:11

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology last Wednesday would would make a difference to the people of the Stolen Generations, according to Acting Program Co-ordinator of Primary Clinical Care and Post-Acute Rehabilitation and Aged Care Diai Luffman.

“It also made a difference to me personally and spiritually as only through forgiveness could healing begin to take place.” 

The Apology, she thought, was a big step for people who had been carrying a great hurt for so many years, and that the Apology would see the breaking of the darkness that covered the nation for so long.

Diai told me that many generations have borne the burden of the government’s actions and that the suppression of the hurt that has been carried around by so many is, without doubt, a contributing factor to the early deaths of Indigenous people, through chronic disease and through the living of destructive lives.

Diai hopes that, with the Prime Minister showing that he has a heart, it will help to heal the hearts of those who have been hurt for too long.

After all, the Stolen Generation is not ancient history; it is today’s reality for so many people.

Diai was speaking at a Sorry Day breakfast at the Primary Health Centre so that staff could listen to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s address and share a communal breakfast together.

A number of staff attended and listened solemnly and with respect as the Prime Minister gave his history-making speech on the first day of Parliament’s 42nd session. 

Tears were shared by those present.

Sorry Day was acknowledged by Thursday Island Hospital with a showing of the Bringing Them Home DVD last Tuesday, organised by Cultural Awareness Program Facilitator Maria Tapim.

Attended by a diverse range of hospital staff the DVD was made in response to the report of the National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. 

The DVD provided a realistic and harrowing insight into life for the 100,000 children who were forcibly taken from their families and communities as a result of government policy, between 1910 and 1970.

The film discussed the deep hurt, loss and degradation which has been the legacy, not only for the children stolen from their families, but also for generations of children to follow.

Those who took part shared their deep hurts over the long-term effects of the denial of language and culture, of always wondering what happened to their families, of having no control over their own lives, their memories of daily beatings, of abuse and of never belonging.

The film tells us that with between one-in-three to one-in-10 children taken there is not one family nor one community today that has not be scarred by this separation, the central theme of which was to erase the children’s Aboriginality or Torres Strait Islander heritage.

Those conducting the inquiry concede that the governments of the day were guilty of genocide, which is described by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

One participant in the film makes a very valid comparison with ANZAC Day, stating that ANZAC Day is commemorated each year to “remember and validate the pain of those involved, to make sure we never forget.  Why can’t we have a ‘Lest We Forget’?”

    By SAMANTHA DEVINE