Last year Australians were shaken by the report of a national investigation into the policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families. The practice - which aimed at assimilating the children into Western culture - went on until the early 1970s, and caused immense suffering.
Some who suffered suggested that a national Sorry Day be held - a day when all Australians could express their sorrow at the whole tragic episode. The report included this suggestion among its recommendations.
The Australian Government implemented some of the report's recommendations, but ignored the idea of a Sorry Day. It also ignored the proposal that a national apology be offered, arguing that it could not be held responsible for the actions of its predecessors.
Many Australians felt differently. A coalition of community groups, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, came together and launched a plan to hold a national Sorry Day on 26 May 1998, exactly a year after the report was tabled in the Australian Parliament.
The idea spread like a bushfire. Churches gave strong backing, education authorities produced study material. One community group had already launched 'Sorry Books', where everyone could express, in their own words, their sorrow and apology for the forced removal policies. Demand for the books grew, until eventually over 1,000 were in circulation. Half a million people wrote messages in them.
On Sorry Day the books were handed to members of the 'stolen generations' - as they are now called - in hundreds of ceremonies in cities, towns and rural centres all over the country. Thousands of churches and schools commemorated the day.
In Melbourne the Lord Mayor handed the keys of the city to representatives of the stolen generations, in welcome to people who had been long ignored, and the city churches rang their bells in tribute. In Adelaide a memorial was unveiled at the site of a former home for children who had been removed. In Sydney, thousands rallied at the Opera House. Among them was Luigi, with his ice cream van, handing out free gelati. 'We Italian Australians need to say sorry too,' he explained.
That evening, 15 minutes of the half-hour national TV news was devoted to Sorry Day. Prominent politicians were seen in tears as they watched a ceremony in the Federal Parliament. Next morning Sorry Day was front-page news in many towns and cities. In the following days it was one of the main subjects of opinion columns and talk-back shows.
This has profoundly moved the 'stolen generations', who have often felt isolated by the wider community's reluctance to hear their story. Sorry Day has given a burst of hope that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians can discover each other and be reconciled. Amidst growing signs of racial polarization in some parts of the country, that hope is vital.
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