Two speeches a year apart – one apologising to black children for being taken from their families,another to white children for the same injustice. Why is only one speech still controversial? After Alan Jones’ extraordinary comments that Australia needs another stolen generation, it’s worth revisiting Kevin Rudd’s speech of apology. No, or not the celebrated one from 2008 but a far less controversial address he delivered a year later approximately the so-called forgotten Australians – the people subjected to institutional abuse as wards of the state during the 20th century.“[W]e come together nowadays to offer our nation’s apology,” Rudd told the parliament in November 2009. To say to you, the Forgotten Australians, and those who were sent to our shores as children without your consent,that we are sorry. Sorry – that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused.” Related: Alan Jones says Australia needs another stolen generation 'to protect' children' Most were placed in the care of Barnardos, the Fairbridge Society, and the Church of England and the Christian Brothers. The House of Commons Health Committee concluded that children were placed in large,often isolated, institutions and were often subjected to harsh, and sometimes intentionally brutal,regimes of work and discipline, unmodified by any real nurturing or encouragement. The institutions were inadequately supervised, or monitored and inspected. Related: Indigenous kids are still being removed from their families,more than ever before | Larissa Behrendt Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com