See what a difference a leftish government can make? I bet John Howard seems like a bad dream, right Australian DUers?from the Independent UK:
Australia's stolen generation: 'To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, we say sorry'
Today marks a historic apology by the Australian government to its Aboriginal community for years of estrangement, lies and abuse. But while the official admission of guilt is welcomed, the question of compensation still remains. By Andy McSmith and Christopher Finn
It has been a long time coming, but at last Australia has said the word its Aboriginal population wanted to hear. It was uttered three times, early this morning, when the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, addressed the Australian Parliament. That word was "sorry".
For years, Australians have agonised over the fate of about 100,000 Aborigine children who were taken from their families because the government believed that their race had no future and they would be better off being brought up in white society.
Yesterday, as Australia's Parliament returned from its summer break, its formal opening was turned into a ceremony designed to draw a line under one of the nastiest episodes in Australian history and usher in a new era of "mutual respect".
If nothing else, it made for one of the most colourful starts to any parliamentary session, as thousands of Aborigines poured into the capital, Canberra. Kirstie Parker, the managing editor of the Aboriginal newspaper the Koori Mail, said she found the apology "very moving".
Though they have now had the satisfaction of an official admission that they were wronged, it is still a vexed question as to whether the victims are to be compensated. Only one has been so far. Bruce Trevorrow was 13 months old when, on Christmas Day 1957, his father, Joseph, asked neighbours to take him to hospital in Adelaide for treatment for stomach pains. When he arrived, it was recorded that he had no parents and he was handed on to be fostered by a white couple. This information was deliberately withheld from his parents, and he never saw his father again. He was reunited with his mother at the age of 10. Trevorrow won a court judgment that his alcoholism, depression and inability to hold down a job were attributable to his having been "stolen" as a child, and he was awarded A$525,000, about £240,000. His case was unusual because the lies told to his parents had been set down on paper and were retrieved from the files. ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australias-stolen-generation-to-the-mothers-and-the-fathers-the-brothers-and-the-sisters-we-say-sorry-781543.html
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