National Sorry Day 2020
Today is National Sorry Day and 20 years since the final ‘Bringing Them Home’ Report was tabled in Parliament in 1997. The report was conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, now known as the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The report revealed the National Enquiry into the forced removal and separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, communities and land due to race-based policies written and set up by both State and Federal Governments from 1910 to the 1970s.
This report also provided over five hundred oral and written testimonials from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across Australia which provided not just insight of the trauma and suffering, but also the ongoing impacts.
In 2008, the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, made an Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples and committed to change. See the link below to view in detail.
There were many recommendations that come out of the ‘Bringing Them Home’ Report but many weren’t implemented and therefore on this same day in 2017, the First Nations National Constitutional Convention released the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ calling for “constitutional change and structural reform”.
I encourage everyone to view the links below, learn and take some time to acknowledge the immense suffering, trauma and injustices that our Stolen Generations have experienced and continue to experience.
We can come together to commit in the healing and connection of First Nations Peoples and our country.