Damien Miller's weblog

I'm sorry for not updating my weblog for so long. Between the demands of work, a very active and playful son and a persistent illness, I just haven't had the time or much that I'd considered to be of wide interest to say.

This changed yesterday as I watched an incredible thing: our government apologising to indigenous Australians who had been forcibly removed from their families, a result of government policy over the course of seven decades. This apology has been a long time in coming; it was stubbornly blocked by the previous conservative government and vigorously used as a token in the sad culture wars that have held this country over the last two decades. That conservative government is no more, and with the departure of its bitterly ideological leader, a good proportion of their resistance disappeared too.

I, probably to my shame, don't have any deep knowledge or interest of what transpired during this chapter of my nation's history and, having been born around the time the practice was concluded, certainly do not feel any personal guilt for what was done. In spite of this, I strongly supported an apology. Other than the most strident right-wing culture warriors, everyone (even the previous Prime Minister) agreed that what was done was wrong - the resistance to apologise was justified with two arguments: that apologising would traduce those who acted with good intentions to (in their view) improve the lives of indigenous children, and that the current generation should not bear guilt for actions carried out by previous generations.

I have always considered these arguments to be trivially flawed. To the first, the apology is for the government's actions and policies. These were clearly shame-worthy, having been motivated by some awful views of race and the desired destiny of indigenous Australians. The actions, motivations and guilt of the people involved in the removal and subsequent care of the affected children are a separate matter, for those individuals' consciences alone.

The second argument fails to convince too: it is not the current generation who are apologising, rather the instrumentality of government itself. The same instrumentality with the same broad constitution, that presided over the offending policies is what continues to exist today and it is appropriate that it apologises for its own past mistakes.

The apology itself was excellent. I can't recall having ever being touched by a speech made in the House of Representatives before, but this one certainly did between its recitation of the personal story of Nanna Fejo's removal, and the brutally confronting quotation of the racist doctrine underpinning the policies that enabled it. Prime Minister Rudd went further than I dared hope, producing an appropriate and great speech for a historic occasion.

Not so the reply. The beginning of Dr. Nelson's reply was also touching and I recall my shock at thinking that he'd actually brought his party to the table and was making a sincere apology. Sadly, it didn't last very long - only ten or so pauses before he started drawing irrelevant and inappropriate equivalences between the settler and indigenous experience.

Dr. Nelson, in one of those excellent opening paragraphs, admonished us to "place ourselves in the shoes of others, imbued with the imaginative capacity to see this issue through their eyes with decency and respect." I don't have to step far; as a father, I could imagine no greater pain than having my son forcibly removed from me. To tacitly suggest that such pain was justified by some aspirational struggle towards nationhood is offensive and not supported by any fact of which I am aware.

His speech could only be described as schiziod. Divided between his clear personal sympathy for the apology, and the need to pander to the atavists in the party who put installed him as their leader (it being widely believed that the other contender for the leadership was rejected because of his support for the apology). The result is that the could delay and slightly mar the occasion, but not stop it - a lesson for social conservatives everywhere.

I only hope that Prime Minister Rudd's gesture of bipartisanship is genuine and not political, and this becomes one of those rare critical points where the circumstances are right for a real change in the lives of our indigenous citizens. It is sorely overdue.

posted at: 22:18 | path: /life | permanent link