Shepparton Apology Breakfast, 2018 – Shepparton Interfaith Network

Ten years ago, on 13 February 2008, Prime Minister Rudd formally apologised to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly those whose lives had been blighted by the practice of forced child removal. Shepparton Regional Reconciliation Group invites you to join in the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the National Apology on the morning of Tuesday, 13 February, 2018 at Queens Gardens, Shepparton.

Honouring the Stolen Generations:

In June 1992 the High Court of Australia handed down its “Mabo” decision. This case formally recognised the special relationship that Indigenous Australians have with the land. It said the legal concept of terra nullius (Latin for “The land of no-one”) did not apply in Australia.

Then, in 1997, the Bringing Them Home report was released. It described the effects of laws and practices that had, since 1788, allowed Indigenous children to be forcibly taken from their families. Such children became known as the Stolen Generations.

These events shocked, confused and angered Australians. The Reconciliation movement grew. In 2000 more than half a million Australians joined street marches in support of Indigenous Australians and Reconciliation.

Paul Keating

Paul Keating (Prime Minister 1991-96) delivered a speech to a largely Aboriginal audience gathered in Redfern, a suburb of Sydney with a large Aboriginal community. Keating challenged non-indigenous people to recognise the suffering that colonisation brought to Indigenous peoples. “If we can imagine the injustice,” he said, “we can imagine the opposite.” He acknowledges the vital contribution indigenous Australians have made to the nation’s economic, social and cultural development. He affirms the importance of the Mabo court decision, made just months earlier, which some Australians rejected.

Kevin Rudd

The Reconciliation marches in 2000 highlighted the need for an apology by the Australian Government to the Stolen Generations. The prime minister of the time, John Howard, did not believe in a national apology, but his successor did.

Supported by both sides of Parliament, Kevin Rudd’s brief speech received a standing ovation. More than 100 members of the Stolen Generations witnessed it from within the House of Representatives. Outside, thousands of people watched it on large screens set up on the lawns around Parliament House. The speech was also broadcast live around Australia.