The Canberra Times
Letters (extract)
May 31, 2000
Yes, we must all apologise for past wrongs
YES, MR HOWARD, you should apologise to the Aboriginal people of
Australia. Not just for the stolen generations, but because from the
days of first settlement, we whites assumed:
That Aborigines had a "primitive" culture not worthy of respect.
Therefore we did not need to know anything about it and as people
they therefore did not deserve respect;
That their genes were not as "strong" as ours;
That because they had not "exploited" the land, they did not deserve
it;
That their future survival was dependent on their becoming just like
us.
Having made these judgments about them, we:
Paid them nothing for working for us and then wondered why they did
not "save up to buy land" like we do;
Stole their children on various spurious grounds and then told those
children they were orphans;
Made it clear to mixed-blood children that the Aboriginal side of their
inheritance was something to be hidden or looked down on;
And then wondered why there was bitterness and alienation.
If there is to be reconciliation between blacks and whites in this
country, we whites must accept that many of our past and present
actions are based on ignorance and arrogant ethnocentric
assumptions about our own superiority. Every one of us needs to
question our attitudes towards and learn about those who are different
from ourselves. And governments need to apologise for the policies
and practices of the past. Only with apologies based on
understanding of what we have done can we move forward on
reconciliation.
JENNIFER BRADLEY
McKellar
A reconciliation mandate? Phooey!
SO THE march over the bridge constituted a mandate did it? With just
a few more people involved than the annual City-to-Surf run, I doubt
that very much. We can get the odd 25,000 or so usual suspects
bussed into Canberra for all sorts of protests and yet a gathering of
150,000 composed, in the main, of those too young to have informed
opinions, the zealous (but not always overly bright) religious
community and the indigenous folk themselves, supposedly
constitutes an overwhelming mandate for reconciliation. By the way,
what exactly is reconciliation?
BRAD COOPER
Flynn
Do these marches really do any good?
WATCHING the march for reconciliation and reading the subsequent
laudatory commentary, two thoughts came to mind. First, I was
surprised such a large number of people had previously felt so
irreconciled with Aborigines that they felt compelled to participate.
Secondly, I was reminded of the praise heaped on similar marches
around the ACT, NSW and elsewhere a couple of years ago by
thousands of schoolchildren against racism. For those with short
memories, the marches occurred about the same time, but were
unrelated to, the NSW Premier announcing the establishment of a task
force to counteract an epidemic of bullying in schools. They also
occurred several months before a weekend edition of The Canberra
Times contained a lengthy article on bullying in Canberra schools.
Does anybody seriously believe the time and effort devoted to mass
marches and similar theatrics are going to go any way towards solving
problems in the Aboriginal community?
BILL DEANE
Chapman
It's the Queen who should apologise
HAVE I missed something? Or has no-one mentioned it before? The
Queen of England should apologise to indigenous Australians! It was
the British who invaded Australia. It was the British who were
responsible for this continent of Australia until Federation in 1901.
The Queen, as the hereditary leader of the British people, or the
British Prime Minister, as their political leader, should apologise to
the
Australian Aborigines for the murders, rapes and other crimes
perpetrated on the indigenous population up to 1901. Australia should
apologise to the indigenous people for the mistreatment perpetrated
either knowingly or unknowingly in the past since 1901. As the Prime
Minister is leader of Australia, he should be the one to apologise.
Compensation is not the issue, just a heartfelt "sorry" on behalf of
previous Australian Governments would do, but he does not appear to
have the emotional fortitude to do it. (Is it that he only has courage
when wearing a bullet-proof vest?) Let's all have reconciliation at the
grassroots level person to person, and leave politicians right out of
the process if all they can think of is their political capital.
DAYLE REDDEN
Macarthur
Let's wait until Howard is gone
MICK DODSON was absolutely right when he argued, at the Opera
House on Saturday, May 27, that the reconciliation process does not
need John Howard. John Howard's apology now would only be a lie.
He has proven that his politics are in the same arena as Pauline
Hanson's. He has shown that he is too small to make the step that the
true head of government, as representative of the Australian
government as an institution, must take. If he were to apologise now it
would be false, tawdry and simply more trademark political
opportunism. The process will do better to wait until his tenure is
over
and, except for his pettiness, he is forgotten in less than two years.
GRAEME TUNKS
Macarthur
PM's blinkered vision a tragedy
JOHN HOWARD is a failure. Nothing he does now as our national
political leader will overcome or undo his inability to positively
address
the two critical leadership challenges for Australia at the beginning
of
the 21st century a formal apology by the Australian Government for
the wrongs done to the indigenous peoples of Australia since
European settlement, and the establishment of an Australian republic
with an Australian as head of state. Future generations will look back
at this time in our history and see him as a man of small vision, a
reactionary conservative whose preoccupation was with tax reform
rather than reforming our national vision, both of our past and our
future. It is a national tragedy.
DAVID GLYNNE JONES
Lyneham
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