Social Justice Report 1998
Appendix 3: Text of Sorry Day Statement
Acknowledgement, Unity, Commitment
A national 'Sorry Day' is being observed on 26 May, 1998, exactly one year after the tabling in Federal Parliament of the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.
The Report, Bringing Them Home, reveals the extent of forced removal, which went on for 150 years into the early 1970s and its consequences in terms of broken families, shattered physical and mental health, loss of languages, cultures and connection to traditional land, loss of parenting skills and the enormous distress still being experienced by many of its victims today.
The Report recommended that a Sorry Day be held - a day when all Australians can express their sorrow for the whole tragic episode, and celebrate the beginning of a new understanding. Many of the stolen generations told the Inquiry that they would value this. Unlike the widespread Aboriginal use of the term 'sorry business' to denote death, they see a Sorry Day as a means of restoring hope to people in despair.
The National Indigenous Working Group on Stolen Generations has invited non-Indigenous people to join them in a National Sorry Day. They encourage the wider Australian community to remember and commemorate those affected by removal, so that the nation can continue the process of healing together. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will participate in a day dedicated to the memory of loved ones who never came home, or who are still finding their way home.
Many non-Indigenous Australians, having learnt the history of forced removal, wish to apologise for the practice and State Parliaments, churches and organisations have done so in recent months. This has been greatly appreciated because apology means understanding, a willingness to enter into the suffering and a commitment to help overcome its debilitating effects.
Sorry Day offers every community the chance to shape a ceremony which, by the frankness of its acknowledgement of past wrongs towards the stolen generations and by the sincerity of its commitment to overcome racism, unites the community. Such a ceremony cannot be prescribed. It must come from the hearts of local people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
'Sorry books' are being distributed which give everyone the chance to say sorry in their own words. Civic or political leaders could hand these books to Elders of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
It is hoped the ceremonies will be accompanied by displays, cultural presentations, theatrical and other events developed together by the local Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. These activities bring history to life, expressing the pain and also the resilience of those who were removed.
Sorry Day will be an important step on the road which all Australians are 'walking together'. This commemoration can help restore the dignity stripped from those affected by removal and offers those who carried out the policy - and their successors - a chance to move beyond denial and guilt. It could shape a far more creative partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, with immense benefit to both.
[Extract from the Minutes of the National Indigenous Working Group on the Stolen Generations - Planning Meeting, 19 January 1998].
3 April 2003.
