DUCKPOND

It may be my lenses but I find I am framing today’s events differently to most. My starting point is with racism and the associated violence and dehumanization. The policies of the forceful removal of Aboriginal children from their parents were violent measures conducted for racist purposes. At the level of feeling we can recognize the violence done when a child is permanently taken from its mother, and if we cannot every child can. Mother’s can sometimes abandon children, but that is symptomatic of either a mental breakdown or a social breakdown, or both, or in other words severe trauma.

Racism combines two forms of violence. The assumption is made simultaneously that the indigenous culture is a lesser culture and indigenous children are lesser people. When we are dealing with violence we are dealing with a wrong that requires reconciliation for the damage that has been done to all of us, most grievously and directly to the Stolen Generations, but to the basis of social justice in the society, to the interrelationships and connections between people.

Compensation, in its historical origin, was the means of keeping peace in aboriginal germanic societies, in which any person could call on his family, his kindred or his tribe to avenge his injury or death. In the form of wergeld, or worth money, was the means by which the murder’s kinsmen could buy off the murdered man’s kinsmen without loss of honour. It depended on status, a king was worth more than a noble, a slave more than an ox. Lesser tariffs were set for lesser injuries. There may be a case for compensation for the Stolen Generation.

My other frame is that in this perception Parliament, more particularly the House of Representatives was enhanced beyond the run of the mill disembodied and disengaged debate. Today the House of Representatives was the focus of the nation’s attention. It was the central stage of a national drama, charged with emotion.The actions of the surrounding people, the parliamentarians rising to their feet, and the principal players, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, whose behavior was more powerful than any of her words ever could be, were symbolic and significant. I see there gestures acted out before us as a rehumanizing of the Indigenous People. Words are important on these occasions but they were not the full story. The Governor General’s comments on the Aboriginal history and culture are worthy of recognition. The people in the gallery were as important as the representatives, except for five members who absented themselves. The fact that screens were set up outside the Parliament to accommodate the crowds and in the major cities reminded me of the Sydney Olympics.

Australian writer Richard Flanagan in The Guardian caught the mood:

It is difficult to convey the deep emotion many Australians feel about the apology that is to be made to those indigenous Australians now known as the Stolen Generations, this Wednesday at 9am, as the first act of the newly elected Australian parliament. The national excitement around the event is palpable, with thousands heading to Canberra for it, and public screens being erected in most major cities for the live, national broadcast of the event.

It was an emotional moment for me, the stories do not ever get better by the telling. Listen to this interview by Barbara McMahon from The Guardian with Zita Wallace a member of the stolen generation. There are many testimonies, and the common feature is that they are heart rending:

The point, in my opinion, that while racism has been delegitimated elsewhere, such as in the United States as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, and in South Africa following the fall of Apartheid, up until today past racist practice in Australia with their enduring consequences, had not been purged from our political system. The struggles against racism in other countries have informed our understanding. For example, from South Africa we have learnt that reconciliation is possible. Our Parliament today was the meeting place for addressing the issues of “sorry business”.

Personal Reflection: 14 February 2008.

My inner cynic was wondering why I was so emotional on hearing the stories. Perhaps I am just soft and weak, but sometimes in my experience that is a great strength. Then it occurred to me that might have something to do with the fact that I went to boarding school from the age of turning six to over ten, so I have buried memories of the violence of institutional adjustment.

That said, what I cannot comprehend, or begin to understand the full effect of, is the impact on a person of racism and racist violence, that included the removal not just from their family but their culture. Racism is particularly vicious, not simply because of the non-reflective attitudes of people, who frankly often do not know better, but because those attitudes are internalized. Respect and self-worth are crucial human needs, which it is our duty to foster, not diminish.

I applaud the words of the Prime Minister in Parliament, and particularly his affirmation of the intrinsic value of Indigenous Culture and history, and similar words from the Governor-General.

My sense is that the speech by the Prime Minister will not be soon forgotten(via ABC Radio National) :

AFTERWORD: 16 February 2008.

The speech by Kevin Rudd will be marked down, I expect, as a significant moment in Australian history. It was a case of seizing the day by repudiating the past. Some people, for reasons I do not fully comprehend – perhaps I have not tried hard enough – continue to disparage the process by saying it was merely symbolic. I think it is far more than words or gestures. Parliament was transformed by the participation of the gallery composed of members of the Stolen Generation and the actions of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. The acceptance of the coolamon was significant and symbolic.

To me the the significance of the events yesterday was the House of Representatives which normally enacts laws, was transformed into the stage and meeting place for a set of symbolic actions and words before representatives of the Stolen Generation that deligimateddelegitimated the racist and violent policies of the past.

Brendan Nelson did say sorry, and most of the Opposition joined with the Government. So in the frame of recent history, congratulations to him and to them for this moment of national significance.

It was a shared moment across the continent. The sorry will have a special importance for those affected by the policies. I am hoping, more than I am confident, that the process of delegitmization has taken place. In this instance we can reformulate the maxim that by changing the Prime Minister the people of Australia have changed the nation.