Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sorry


Sorry
Originally uploaded by Halans

I rushed home from Deutschkurs today to watch the PM deliver the speech.

It was long overdue.

It was confrontingly honest.

It was sincere.

It was moving.

It had a joke!

It didn't pretend that it would be easy.

It contained that magical word - sorry.

It is the first step on a long journey.

It made my heart glad.

Edited to add: at the suggestion of a commenter, I am adding some more information, for those who aren't from Australia, and therefore were left scratching their heads at this post.

On the 13th February 2008, the Australian Government formally apologised to Indigenous Australians, particularly those who were part of the Stolen Generations, who were forcibly removed from their families as part of the appalling government policies relating to Indigenous Australians from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. It recognised that the laws and policies of successive governments tore apart families, destroyed lives and inflicted great pain and suffering on the original inhabitants of Australia.

More information is available on the BBC news website.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you need to explain sorry for what? to those not from oz

Helen said...

Hello, and thanks for dropping by to comment. I've added some more information about the sorry speech for those who are not from Australia.

Anonymous said...

In other news, when I saw your email address, I got very excited in thinking you were the NZ PM (also named Helen Clark), popping by to comment on my little old blog.

That's not to say I wasn't equally, if not more excited to see an Aussielander stopping by in a gesture of Trans-Tasman cooperation.

P.S. I felt really proud of Australia on February 13th.