Sorry Day

[Frankie]

This week Australia celebrated Sorry Day... and there has been much debate over it....(Click here for info for non Aussies)

Myspace and facebook have had their on line space for people to apologize and/or to debate the issues. This is the BttB place to have your say.

[emmasi]

Well, I'm not apologizing for anything. I do feel sorry FOR the people who are a part of the stolen generation and the families affected by it, but it happened before I was born, ergo, not my fault. I won't say sorry TO anyone for what has happened in a past that I was never a part of.

However, I do applaud Kevin Rudd for apologizing on behalf of the government (not on behalf of ALL white Australians). It's a great and important thing he's done, and it means a lot to so many people people. I just hope that the compensation claims don't get out of control. You would hope that people will be realistic about it, and not try to run the economy into the ground out of bitterness and spite. (Not saying that will happen in the majority of cases, but there's always someone.)

There are good and bad points to this. I think, for the moment, the sense of community it's created is a very good thing.

[Miss Tan Tan]

I applaud Kevin for doing this too. But as my best friend is from an aboriginal background her perspective put me in my place. How is it saying sorry is meant to forgive the heartache and sadness that the families went thru. I can only imagine what it would be to have your child basically ripped from your arms. And as a parent that would be the worst thing in the world. I honestly couldn't imagine what the children went thru being separated from their family at such a young age. I don't honestly think a sorry will cover it but I do believe a Sorry will be a start in hoping that the history can be changed.

[KaitieL]

Now, i'm not racist so forgive me if people take this the wrong way but why should i have to say sorry for something that i had no part in. Good on Kevin Rudd for apologising on behalf of the government, but i think Australia should have voted on this, especially considering the apology was on behalf of Aus as well. Aboriginal children weren't the only children taken away, but unmarried white girls had their babies taken from them. where is there apology. I have a son and my husband and I weren't married at the time of his birth and it would have broken my heart if he had been taken from me. i feel for everyone who had their children taken from them.

As for the compo claims, well i dont think the government should go overboard with this. no amount of money will make what happened better. Sorry's a start i guess.

[Miss Tan Tan]

Now, i'm not racist so forgive me if people take this the wrong way but why should i have to say sorry for something that i had no part in. Good on Kevin Rudd for apologising on behalf of the government, but i think Australia should have voted on this, especially considering the apology was on behalf of Aus as well. It wasn't just Aboriginal children that were taken away, but unmarried white girls had their babies taken from them. where is there apology. I have a son and my husband and I weren't married at the time of his birth and it would have broken my heart if he had been taken from me. i feel for everyone who had their children taken from them.

As for the compo claims, well i dont think the government should go overboard with this. no amount of money will make what happened better. Sorry's a start i guess.

Everything is bigger then it seems. I was reading an article in the MX newspaper on the train on the way home and someone had actually said something about girls in other countries that are having children ripped from them when they are born. Things are alot deeper then what they seem. Compo shouldn't be given out. I'm sorry if it seems rude. But I agree with a statement made on TV. Why give compo to generations of the past when we can do something to help the generations of the future Why not make the compo about housing or something that is going to help the children and families of now to get a better life and do something to help realize that the children they have in their life now can have such a huge impact on our future and help us to understand their history.

[KaitieL]

^^ I didn't want to say it, but I agree that no compo should be given out. No amount of money is going to make them forget what happened. The money should be put to better use, updating the facilities in remote Aboriginal communities is a start. The start of some are appalling.

[Miss Tan Tan]

I am the futherest thing you could ever meet from being racist. But helping what I believe are the future leaders of Australia. Then this should have been done so long ago. Ripping children from their mothers and fathers is heartbreaking at the best of times. But to allow this to go on for so long. Helping them emotionally is better then helping them financially. What sort of money could ever cover the heartache you could have gone thru? None in my opinion. All you can do is talk and hope that one day things work things out for them selfs. I'm certainly not agreeing with what our government did at the time. But listening to what they went thru hurt. I hope that children of our future learn from the leaders of the pasts mistakes. Help children become something to be proud of and help make Oz a continent to be damn proud of living in.

[Miranda]

I can see why Australians are reluctant to think they are apologising personally. As an English person, I feel the same way about the slave trade. We are always being made to feel guilty for it, but it wasn't our generation who did it, it was our ancestors. All governments do wrong to others at some point, it doesn't have to be everyone else's fault too.

[chatter box]

There is a big difference between the responsibilities we have as individuals and the responsibilities which the State has. Of course we have no reasons to feel guilty as individuals about the stolen generations and their suffering unless we were there and took a part in it. None of use were involved. But if we distance ourselves from it, and say it is nothing to do with us we then minimise the tremendous hurt that was done in the name of the state and we run the risk of people making similar mistakes in the future. I thought Kevin Rudd did us proud , but was appaled by Brendon Nelson's speech which was mean and self serving and was nothing short of trying to justify the unjustifiable actions of the state. It was ill judged. No wonder people turned their backs . As a State we need to say sorry. We expected the UK to say sorry for tearing our parents and grandparents away from their families, so I don't think it was too much to ask that we do the same for the indigenous population of this country. It is the first step to healing a gaping wound. I was deeply moved by the personal testaments and by the Prime Ministers Speech. I think it was a long over due day in Australian history.

[emmasi]

As a State we need to say sorry. We expected the UK to say sorry for tearing our parents and grandparents away from their families, so I don't think it was too much to ask that we do the same for the indigenous population of this country.

I don't expect that. In fact, I think we ended up with the better deal. I'd rather live in Australia than England any day. That doesn't mean that I'm not saddened to think of what innocent, and even guilty people went through by being shipped out to a strange land with unbearable heat, deadly animals, and unimpressed locals. That would have been horrible. But *I* haven't gone through that myself, and I don't expect English people today to take any responsibility for the mistakes of the past. I was born here, and this is MY country. I've bled on this dirt, I've watched the sun rise over these hills, and I've heard these birds singing all my life. The colour of my skin doesn't determine what right I have to be here. Sometimes I do wonder what it would be like if I lived in Ireland or England, and I do feel a connection to the ancestry of those places, but I don't come from there and I've never even visited. I come from Australia. I won't feel guilt, shame, or sorrow for that.