Australia apologises to Stolen Generations
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia apologised on Wednesday forthe historic mistreatment of Aborigines, heralding a new era inrace relations and moving indigenous people to tears as hugecrowds cheered across the nation.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd led the parliamentary apology tomembers of the Stolen Generations of aborigines, who wereforcibly taken from their families and communities when theywere young children under old assimilation policies.
In unprecedented scenes for Australia's parliament, a hugecrowd of more than 7,000 people gathered on the lawns outsideto watch as the apology was broadcast live to giant screens,with Aborigines and supporters cheering as Rudd said "sorry".
"It makes the indigenous community feel, for the first timein a real long time, really feel part of Australia, that it'sembraced by the whole Australian nation," Stolen Generationelder Mark Bin Bakar told Reuters.
"It's about us coming together as a country, acknowledgingour past and moving on, accepting each other as brothers andsisters of this nation," he said.
Others paused at city squares, town halls and schoolsaround the country to watch the speech, which is expected toopen a new era of reconciliation between indigenous and whiteAustralians.
In Sydney's inner-city suburb of Redfern, home to a largeaboriginal community, hundreds stood in heavy rain and cheeredeach of the three times Rudd said "sorry".
"Sorry heals the heart, and it goes deep," said Redfernaboriginal activist Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor.
The parliamentary apology comes 11 years after a reportinto past assimilation policies found between one in three andone in 10 aboriginal children had been taken from theirfamilies between 1910 and 1970.
The report urged a national apology to those affected,known as the Stolen Generations, but the then conservativegovernment under prime minister John Howard rejected thefinding and offered only a statement of regret.
"Today, the parliament has come together to right a greatwrong," Rudd said.
"We apologise for the laws and policies of successiveparliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief,suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians."
SORRY
Rudd made the apology the first item of parliamentarybusiness for centre-left Labour, which won power in Novemberlast year, ending almost 12 years of conservative rule.
He said sorry" three times to the Stolen Generations andtheir families, saying the old policies were a stain onAustralia's soul which would never be repeated.
About 100 members of the Stolen Generations were inparliament to hear the government apologise, some wiping awaytears as Rudd spoke.
Howard, who lost his parliamentary seat last November, didnot attend the celebrations, but the other four living formerprime ministers did attend, including conservative PrimeMinister Malcolm Fraser, who governed from 1975 to 1983.
"I just wish the idea of an apology had been put beforeme," Fraser told Sky television.
Australia has about 460,000 indigenous Aborigines andTorres Strait Islanders, who make up about 2 percent of the 21million population. There are no aboriginal members in thenational parliament.
Aborigines are the most disadvantaged group in Australia,with a life expectancy 17 years less than other Australians,and far higher rates of infant mortality, unemployment,imprisonment, alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence.
Rudd promised to end the gap in life expectancy within ageneration, and to work to end aboriginal inequality. Heannounced a plan on Wednesday to ensure all young aboriginalchildren are enrolled in pre-school.
Rudd also announced new plans to improve indigenoushousing, and give aborigines constitutional recognition as theoriginal owners of Australia.
(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by SanjeevMiglani)