91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳

Sorry Day: no healing without justice

Comment by Margaret Allum

May 26 was the first anniversary of Sorry Day, a day to mark the plight of the “stolen generations”: For most of this century (until the early 1970s in some states) the federal Aboriginal Ordinance, and later the Welfare Ordinance, allowed the forced removal of Aboriginal children of “mixed” descent from their families. The racist goal was to assimilate them into “white” culture.

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Sorry Day was the culmination of a campaign to get as many non-Aboriginal Australians as possible to apologise for the treatment of the stolen generations. The day was a recommendation of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Bringing Them Home: the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their families.

“Sorry books” were signed by tens of thousands of Australians and pressure was put on PM John Howard and the federal government to formally apologise for Australian governments' past practices and policies. Howard's arrogant refusal continues to infuriate those who believe that his talk of reconciliation rings hollow without the words of penitence.

The government fears it will be liable for large compensation payouts if it utters an apology. Last month it attempted to have a case in the Federal Court in Darwin, bought against the federal government by two members of the stolen generations, dismissed. This case is seen as a test case for those seeking compensation.

'Journey of Healing'

This year's Sorry Day had “Journey of Healing” as its theme. Activities held across Australia included ecumenical services, street processions, sausage sizzles, healing walks and ceremonies, and the Sea of Hands display, which has toured Australia since last year's Sorry Day. Traditional Aboriginal ceremonies, dancing and music were part of all the events.

The National Union of Students offered an apology to the stolen generations. NUS president Jacob Varghese said the day “gives all Australians the opportunity to recognise the genocidal policies of the past, and to take responsibility for the atrocities committed upon the indigenous peoples of this land”. NUS called on the federal government to “join the millions of Australians participating in the Journey of Healing around the country”.

While the many participants in Sorry Day felt they were contributing to reconciliation with Aboriginal Australia, it is not ordinary non-Aboriginal Australians who should shoulder the responsibility for the gross racism of successive federal and state governments. Individuals saying sorry may bring a sense of solidarity and good will, but if it conceals the need for people to demand that Australian governments act to end the injustices that Australia's indigenous population still suffer, then it sidetracks this mass anti-racist sentiment.

For example, the NUS statement of apology did not contain one clear demand on the federal government to redress the effect of past policies. There was no mention of the poor housing, heath and work access that a large proportion of indigenous people face.

Despite clear recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991 to reduce the number of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders imprisoned, they are still grossly over-represented in Australia's jails. Average life expectancy for indigenous people is 20 years below that of non-Aboriginal Australians.

The Coalition government's changes to native title legislation are so discriminatory that it became the first Western government to be questioned by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

After saying that he wanted the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation to launch a reconciliation document in May 2000, Howard rejected the document CAR produced earlier this year.

The launch of the CAR's new booklet Partnerships in Reconciliation: It's Up to Us was billed as a highlight of National Reconciliation Week, which began on May 27 and is organised by the council. The minister assisting the PM on reconciliation, Philip Ruddock, who spoke at the booklet's launch at Parliament House, said he was impressed by the partnerships made by Australian companies and indigenous people's organisations.

Obviously, he was not referring to the less than warm relationship between mining giant Energy Resources of Australia and the Mirrar Aboriginal people on whose land the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine is being imposed.

Rivalling Howard in the hypocrisy stakes is the Liberal Party's last prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, who accepted the honour of being one of Sorry Day's high profile patrons. Perhaps those who proposed his name thought that after almost 24 years most people would have forgotten Fraser's racist policies.

In its first year, Fraser's government cuts funds for housing for low income earners, restricted legal aid, increased pharmaceutical charges and cut real wages. These measures affected the poorest of society most; indigenous Australians are overwhelmingly poor.

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs was targeted by Fraser. Despite promises that his government would not cut Aboriginal services, funding for Aboriginal health, education, culture and recreation, legal aid and housing was slashed.

Justice before reconciliation

Real, not token, measures are needed to achieve justice for the indigenous population. No amount of saying sorry by ordinary Australians, or even prime ministers, is going to by itself bring justice.

From the moment Pauline Hanson's made her racist first speech in parliament, a groundswell of anti-racist sentiment began to build. When the report on the stolen generations was released, the anti-racism movement was large and had the potential to force the federal government to make reparations for past and present injustices.

Instead, this sentiment was channelled into a campaign for words, not action. It was one of the biggest missed opportunities of the last few years. Far from being a stepping stone to justice for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, organisations like Australians for Reconciliation and Native Title (ANTaR), which have emphasised achieving reconciliation before justice, have derailed a potentially powerful movement for real change.

The Sorry Day Committee has now backed a proposal from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre to call on the NSW government to establish an Indigenous People's Reparations Tribunal to deal with compensation for the stolen generations. However, the history of inaction by state and federal governments makes it doubtful that such a proposal will be implemented, even though it has been endorsed by the NSW government's Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council.

Anti-racist activists, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, should not be satisfied with the lip service paid to reconciliation. They must work to rebuild a strong and effective movement which can ensure that if a reparations tribunal is created, compensation is awarded swiftly and generously.

As Ray Jackson, spokesperson for the Indigenous Social Justice Association, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly: “While you still have the absolute bastardry of the Howard government and the white establishment — which tries to stop the stolen generations case in the NT, tries to wind back native title legislation, pretends that black history never happened and refuses to apologise — and while there is no justice for the 300 families whose loved ones have died in custody, and the prison officers and police still walk free, then reconciliation and the process of healing the pain of Aboriginal communities cannot begin."