Is The Australian Government Apology To The Aborigines Sincere?

The Australian government has finally apologized to the indigenous people of Australia the Aborigines. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology has symbolic, political, and perhaps even has economic implications. The Australian government should of apologized to the Aborigines decades ago. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did the right thing by acknowledging the destructive and racist history of previous Australian government policies.

The former Prime Minister of Australia the racist bigot John Howard refused to apologize to the Aborigines. Howard has made statements of “regret” he never acknowledged the extent of the pain and the extensive deliberate racist policies that destroyed Aboriginal society.

Australia is very similar to Canada in relation to institutionalized racism against indigenous people. Canada and Australia both had state sponsored bigotry schemes such as the residential school system that was created to “civilize” First Nations and the Aborigines.

Aboriginal leaders now say the next step in the healing process is for the Australian government to pay reparations for the stolen generations. I agree I believe if the Australian government is “genuine” about the apology they need to take action now.

From the year 1910 to the 1970s between 50,000 to 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken away from their parents and placed with white Australian families. The children were often of mixed heritage. The policy was state sponsored white supremacy. The “legislation” was passed to “civilize” Aboriginals, control the Aboriginal population, and to dehumanize and destroy the Aboriginal culture.

Currently, only 451,000 Aborigines living in Australia now out of a total population of 21 million people. The genocide against the Aborigines echoes the genocide against the First Nations people in Canada.

There is already a precedent in Australia in relation to reparations. The island state of Tasmania is the only Australian state that has compensated the “stolen generations”. It is imperative that the Australian government not buckle to public pressure from white Australia and pay the compensation to the stolen generations ASAP.

The Australian media and society have created a pathology around the Aboriginal people they are treated like second class citizens. The Aborigines have the highest unemployment, illiteracy, incarceration rates, and lower life expectancy then white Australians.

People need to remember the Aborigines are the real true Australians they didn’t immigrate to Australia  the Australian continent is their homeland. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd needs to continue in this process of reconciliation. An apology is just words Mr. Rudd needs to take serious action and improve the lives of the Aborigines in Australia immediately.