a Rudd apology
It is refreshing and heartening to read that Kevin Rudd the recently elected Australian Prime Minister has made a historic apology to the Aborigines for injustices committed over 200 years of white colonization, thus removing “a great stain from the nation’s soul”. Kevin is a faithful follower of Christ and to see him bring the reconciling spirit of Christ into the arena of politics and government is just so encouraging. This is an act of courage in contrast to John Howard’s silence and refusal to issue an apology. I wonder what kind of spiritual ramifications this will have in aborigine evangelisation and the softening of the fabled Australian hardness of heart. The International Herald Tribune reported his speech:
“The Parliament is today here assembled to deal with this unfinished business of the nation, to remove a great stain from the nation’s soul, and in a true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia,” Rudd told Parliament.
This was “Government business, motion No. 1,” the first act of Rudd’s Labor government, which was sworn in Tuesday after a convincing electoral win over the 11-year administration of John Howard, who had for years refused to apologize for the misdeeds of past governments.
Rudd’s apology was particularly addressed to the so-called Stolen Generations, the tens of thousands of indigenous children who were removed, sometimes forcibly, from their families in a policy of assimilation that only ended in the 1970s.
In some states it was part of a policy to “breed out the color,” in the words of Cecil Cook, who held the title of chief protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the 1930s.
“We apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country,” Rudd said as hundreds of members of the Stolen Generations listened in the gallery, some with tears in their eyes. “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
“To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”
In my book this is courageous Christian leadership in the marketplace. I have to admit I like it that he has a B.A.(Arts) only, and that he majored in Chinese Studies and speaks fluent Mandarin.
2 comments February 14th, 2008
