Sorry Day's in a sorry state: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Misha Schubert, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 May 2004: 6.
Abstract
The first Sorry Day was held in 1998, acting on a recommendation from Bringing Them Home , which called for a day when the community would acknowledge the suffering caused by the policies of forcible removal on Australia's indigenous populations. Speaking in Sydney, Pamela Young, who describes herself as "second-generation stolen generation", denied that Sorry Day was on the way out, saying it was being marked in schools and communities across the nation.
SIX years after Australia marked its first national day to commemorate the tens of thousands of Aboriginal children removed forcibly from their families, the annual event is in a sorry state.
Small gatherings observed the Sorry Day anniversary around the nation yesterday, but hopes are fading that either side of mainstream politics will make adequate reparations for the policies of the past.
In Sydney, former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, said the stolen generations had been bitterly disappointed by the Howard Government's response to the Bringing Them Home report -- which documented the policies of forced removal and their devastating impact in vivid detail in 1997.
Mr Fraser said he could not justify the Howard Government's actions in spending millions of dollars to defeat test cases for compensation brought by people taken from their families as children.
The former Liberal leader said neither party was prepared to commit the money needed to improve Aboriginal health and the death rate of indigenous people.
"Yet we have just had a federal budget which gave several billion dollars to middle-class and wealthy Australians," he said. "The situation shames us all. But there is no sign either party is taking it seriously."
The first Sorry Day was held in 1998, acting on a recommendation from Bringing Them Home , which called for a day when the community would acknowledge the suffering caused by the policies of forcible removal on Australia's indigenous populations. Speaking in Sydney, Pamela Young, who describes herself as "second-generation stolen generation", denied that Sorry Day was on the way out, saying it was being marked in schools and communities across the nation.
"We have Anzac Day every year, they are lost souls too. We are still fighting, fighting for healing. You don't have to be in people's faces, the story is being told constantly."
Elaine Hughes, visiting from Cairns, who had just been to a Cootamundra Girls Home reunion, said Sorry Day was getting stronger.
"You just have to look around ... black and white mingle," she said.
Editorial -- Page 10
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