Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1614 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

my children are my life, and not to be able to raise them, care for them, be there for them when they fall, be there when they learn a new skill, and be there when they cry, is for me a nightmare. Unfortunately, too many Australians live this nightmare, so I have no problem in apologising.

Throughout the history of white settlement of this country, right up to the present day, the mind-set has always been that we think we know what is best for the Aboriginal people; we know how they should be educated, we know where and how they should live, and we know what land they should have and what is best for them to do on it. Given this sort of ignorant and patronising mind-set, it is not surprising that many Australians see no need for an apology for the wrongs that have occurred in the past - our own Prime Minister being one of them. To those who see no value in apologising or feel they have no responsibility for making an apology, I simply ask, "When did Aboriginals of this land become human beings?". The answer is obvious. Just like us, they have always been human beings.

White Australia cannot keep turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the unjust ways this land was inherited and the lack of human dignity afforded to its indigenous people and their culture. Today we enjoy the benefits of the previous generation's wrongdoing, so it is also our responsibility to begin putting right things concerning how those benefits were obtained. This makes the ownership of a portion of guilt valid. Reconciliation has nothing to do with simply forgetting about the past and attempting to start again with a clean slate. The truth about the wrongs of the past must first be stated and acknowledged, and apology must then be made and accepted. I have heard it said that it is not difficult to apologise for a previous government's mistakes, and I think this is true. It is not difficult because none of us know that, having been put in the same situation ourselves, we would have been any different and not made the same mistakes, too.

In discussing reconciliation with people, I have often asked them what they thought a reconciled Australia would look like. Some of the answers I have received, both rightly and wrongly, have been quite startling; but I think the best comment came from a man who, after admitting he had never given this subject any serious thought, simply stated that in his opinion we will know we have achieved reconciliation as a nation when we are as proud of the Aboriginal culture as we are of our own. How profound that thought is.

How does a culture such as our own achieve this sort of shift in its attitude towards the Aboriginal people? Is it even possible? While the people across the Tasman have their problems, I believe there is much we can learn from the Kiwis as both the Maori and the Europeans are beginning to settle their differences in a meaningful way. In New Zealand they have made room for the Maori people to express their culture in everyday life. Some of these expressions are very obvious; others are much more subtle. The national parliament is opened each year in both the European way and the Maori way. Recently, at their International Conference for Indigenous People, the conference was jointly opened by chiefs of the Maori community and a large group of members of parliament. This involved appropriate Maori protocol as the conference was received into the land and onto the soil in order to seek a cultural blessing. This action gave the conference the opportunity to become a real occasion of giving and receiving, and it reflected the true spirit of reconciliation. While as a nation we are far away from this level of reconciliation, I believe that it needs to eventually become part of our Australianness.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .