Read today to Parliament by Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd:

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."

One pastor-friend responded:

Thanks Rowland,

I watched the apology on ABC TV this morning. I was moved to tears by Mr Rudd's speech and I felt deeply that the first steps towards healing in our national psyche have been taken. Since the first days of colonization a sense of shame has been growing in our collective psyche. This shame has again and again been buried under lame justifications of why the colonial government and community acted without compassion and without any sense of justice for indigenous people. Shame that is buried and denied becomes toxic and has a direct impact on our daily behaviour. Shame is the unshakable feeling that we are fundamentally without value or worth. Our very being seems worthless and meaningless. The most common gut reaction to shame, particularly shame that is not acknowledged, is narcissism. We become obsessed with ourselves and our behaviour is an unchecked attempt to heal ourselves of the sense of worthlessness that we have. This self obsession makes it impossible for us to have empathy for other people, in particular the victims of our narcissistic behaviour. We often wonder why there has been no progress in the process of reconciliation with indigenous peoples and with our own colonialist past since the 1967 referendum. I believe that it is at least partially due to the toxic shame buried in our collective psyche. So much of our national feeling in this country is about proving to the world that we are just as good if not better than they are. Sport is a particular part of our cultural identity in which we invest our sense of being worthy players on the world stage. In my view this kind of obsession with our own international identity has been a clear symptom of toxic shame and the resulting narcissism. We have been so obsessed with proving our worthiness on the world stage that we have been rendered incapable of empathy for the very people whom we neglected and oppressed throughout our short colonial history. The very history that is the source of our shame. Mr Rudd's apology is the first very important step to acknowledging our national shame. Maybe, just maybe we can begin to heal our shame and learn to live with empathy for each other and so finally begin to love one another and grow into national maturity.

(13/2/08)

Note from Rowland: In the 1980s I spoke at a couple of national aboriginal Christian conferences (1000 at one of these meetings, at Port Augusta). Afterwards I wrote personally to about 40 of the nation's aboriginal Christian leaders, and asked them to put into one paragraph what they would like the Australian people to hear. I got replies from about 23 of them (they ranged politically from radical left to conservative right). Consensus: Don't simply throw money at the 'aboriginal problem'. We want to be heard, and known personally, by non-aboriginal people. How many non-aboriginal folks know intimately the life-stories of at least one aboriginal person whom they would class as a 'friend'? As with most 'social issues' no opinion ought to be formulated on complex issues like this one - or homosexuality, or homelessness, or whatever - until we hear real people's stories...

(On another occasion I went on a 'listening journey' to a couple of Bass Strait islands for this purpose. see http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/9639.htm for a summary; and http://jmm.aaa.net.au/catalog/keyword/a-1.htm for many other articles...)

Rowland Croucher