Between the years 1869 and 1969 Australia had was called ‘The Aboriginal Protection Act’. Under this legislation thousands of aboriginal children, usually half-caste but nearly all malnourished and ill-treated, were removed from their parents and adopted by white families. This was carried out by the government and various church missions. The idea was to protect these kids. Many were badly treated due to having white blood, they were made outcasts by their tribes; young females were considered to be especially under threat. This policy of removing these children has been termed ‘The Stolen Generation’. It represents the not-so-nice part of Australian history. However times and attitudes were different back then and indigenous Australians were viewed , on the whole, as a problem to be dealt with.

Over the past ten years there has been increasing pressure for the Australian Govt to say, quite simply, ‘sorry’. So far it has not been done but now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is preparing to say ‘sorry’ to the Aboriginal people for what ocurred in the past. Fair enough. Whilst there were children needlessly removed from their families, many others certainly would have died had they not been, in my opinion, rescued. But back then there were no social workers, no human rights laws, just attitudes and a need to do something about what was seen to be a developing problem.

But it wasn’t only aboriginal children who were removed from their mothers over all those years. Due to social attitudes before the 70′s many thousands of white Australian babies were taken from their mother’s at birth and adopted out. Simply because these mother’s were not married. Will there be an apology for these similarly stolen children? And by whom?

Can the Australian people hope for an apology from the Japanese Govt for the horrors inflicted on Australian soldiers during WWII? I think not.  Can all those people who lost their homes and farms during the 1980′s under the Labor Govt’s ‘recession we had to have’ policy hope for an apology from Mr Rudd on behalf of his socialist govt? Pigs might fly first.

The way the Aboriginal people were treated over the course of a century, before we developed any real sense of social awareness and responsibility, was a travesty no doubt. And it has been acknowledged and is being addressed, but an apology…

One thing I would like to know, making an apology is one thing, but will it be accepted?