'Britain should apologise to Aborigines'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/13/waus113.xml


These apologies are pointless, no one alive today is responsible for what happened so any apology is worthless. They havnt even asked for one.

what the Brits did to these stolen generations was absolutely scandalous, and affects people for years and years, it is time someone acknowledged it, sorry isn't a big word when you consider the damage done to human beings.

Maybe the Italians should apologise for the Roman invasion. The Danes for the Viking pillaging etc etc etc ???

this was happening in my lifetime...and only a few years before yours...watch Rabbit Proof Fence on DVD and let me know if you think they deserve an apology. There are people who were snatched a long time ago still alive today, never mind the people affected in more recent years

If you liken it to the child abuse scandals in this country in the last 20 years, then it might bring some kind of context to it. Except this was widespread and government policy to wipe out an entire generation. It makes me ashamed to be British (again)

Sorry is a meaningless word, I agree. It just needed someone to be big enough to say it. Racism is still rife in Australia, when it is towards indigenous people, certainly when you consider the great big melting pot of predominantly Western Europeans and Asians that make up the rest of the modern population.

Why should you be ashamed ?

It was a policy of continous Australian elected governments. The original policy was dreamed up by 'English intellects' over 100 years ago. Absolutely no living Britain has anything to do with it and I dont believe modern day peoples should have to apologise for wrongs committed by their ancestors.

The aboriginies arent asking for an apology. Human rights lawyers are which suggests to me compensation is the real reason an apology is wanted.

i disagree on both counts.

we cannot just wash our hands of our wrong doings. (well we have, clearly, but it doesn't make it morally right)

and just because they arent asking for an apology, (although that's debateable -they were having national sorry days ten years ago when I lived there) doesnt mean it can't be given. But No apology can make up for the trauma caused here.

and as for compensation, well most Brits would be suing the ass off the council if THEY were removed from THEIR families for 50 years or more.

So I am ashamed, ashamed of the flat out racism and genocide in a relatively modern and developed nation

It's not about apologising on a personal level, it's about doing it as a nation. There is a difference, and it is long overdue.

helencbradshaw wrote:

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So I am ashamed, ashamed of the flat out racism and genocide in a relatively modern and developed nation

Im not ashamed at all.

Things are happening now that future generations will probably find abhorent that we believe is ok now.

The only responsibility the present generation has is to make sure that it doesn't happen again. An apology is an expression of regret, you cannot regret something that you did not have any control over.

Yes we can say what happened was unfair, and that it was disgusting; but that's all we can ever do.

The Australian PM said sorry last week, that should be the end of it.

I'm totally with Helen. I kind of knew the history but watching Rabbit Proof Fence really brough home to me just how recently this was.

And as for nobody asking for an apology that's not true. I saw an interview in the past week where an middle aged Aboriginal woman said she and her sisters would very much welcome an apology for being tekn from their mother when they were young. These are people who are still alive! Of course they deserve an apology

I guess we'll just have to agree to differ on this one.