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Aboriginal Reconciliation Statement from the Director of Schools

 

In 2000 over one million people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a gesture of solidarity with Indigenous Australians. This event which began as a statement of support for Reconciliation, evolved into a moment where the Spirit was alive and experienced by those who attended.  Similar marches took place in other Australian cities. This movement some thirty three years after Indigenous Australian people were officially recognised as full citizens in their own land, was both a triumph of truth and a sword of division.  This year on 13 February the Commonwealth parliament wascalled upon by the Prime Minister to say sorry to Indigenous Australians.

What such an act means is both simple and complex. However for the Christian churches, reconciliation is well grounded in the larger narrative of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ.

The three concepts of apology, forgiveness and reconciliation are inter-related. Apology does not mean saying that present-day Australians are personally guilty of all the wrongs. We are saying we’ve benefited from them at the expense of the victims, the aboriginal people, and that this is our collective history that has shaped us and our relationships with one another. This is the wound at the heart of Australia.

What are the essential features of an apology?

• We publicly articulate the hidden or suppressed history.  
• We express our shame and begin the process of identifying publicly with the suffering victims.
• We seek reconciliation with the indigenous people.

With apology comes a commitment to changed behaviour that is ‘more than words’. A genuine concern for justice and the chance for a better way to live together in the future follow.

I offer the following as an example of a simple Christian apology to indigenous Australians:

I feel profoundly sorry that Indigenous Australian peoples in our shared history have had experiences such as:

• The loss of land which is at the heart of Indigenous spirituality and culture/s
• the government policies which removed children, with the resulting breakdown of culture and family systems
• the government policies based on racist beliefs and practices which dehumanised Indigenous Australian people

And I am sorry for the injustices committed against Indigenous Australians.

Indigenous Australians, please accept my apology.   Spirit of the Land, forgive me and my Australian brothers and sisters. 

Brother Tony Whelan cfc
Director of Schools

On 13 February 2008, the statement made by the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP to the Commonwealth Parliament developed some of these themes.