Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will apologise to the indigenous Australians for the stolen generations
The government will apologise to the indigenous Australians for the ‘stolen generations’ (aboriginal children removed from their families into orphanages or institutions by the state up until 1960s) without giving a date for formal apology(SMH, 29 Jan 2008). The government will apologise but will not establish a compensation fund after the apology. I don’t know what the indigenous groups think about ‘no compensation’ condition… But anyway, this is an important step considering that the previous PM John Howard always rejected saying sorry. And hopefully the apology will be followed by significant projects including health, education, housing etc for the indigenous people. You can read this article http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/01/29/1201369084589.html
You can get more info on stolen generations on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_generations
According to another news on SMH (1 Feb 2008), Bruce Trevorrow, the first stolen generation Aborigine was awarded $525,000 last year in compensation for his removal from his family by the state when he was a child, and recently he has been awarded another $250,000 by a South Australian court. But this is an individual case of compensation.
Mr Trevorrow was 13 months old in 1957 when a neighbour drove him from his Coorong family home, south-east of Adelaide, to Adelaide’s Children’s Hospital with stomach pains.
Two weeks later, under the authority of the Aborigines Protection Board, he was given to a woman, who later became his foster parent, without the permission of his natural parents.
He did not see his family again for 10 years and has since suffered life-long depression, insecurity and became an alcoholic. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/01/1201801023530.html
The ‘no compensation’ question is covered in the recommendations in the Bringing Them Home report: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/report/ch14.html … see “the right to compensation”.
Tasmania government has just announced 106 members and children of the State’s Stolen generations would share $5 million dollar compensation fund. (Koori Mail, 30 January 2008)
I’d be interested to know what people think about the issue of compensation. Is financial compensation is a necessary, or even desirable, part of an apology?