Description
Among the first acts of the incoming federal Australian Labor Government in February 2008 was to offen an apology to the members of the Stolen Generations -- Aboriginal people forcibly removed as children from their families under the policy of assimilation which operated between the 1930s and 1970s. This brought to an end one aspect of a decade long idiological battle of Australia's racial past. The campaign for the apology became emblematic of wider political divisions over the process of achieving reconciliation in Australia by bringing to the fore contrasting views about racism, genocide and intergenerational responsibility. This paper explores the origins of the campaign for an apology; the nature of the ideological battle it unleashed and the implications the campaign has had on the wider quest for reconciliation in Australia and especially in addressing the high levels of intergenarational disadvantage and family violence. By way of conclusion, the paper makes brief reference to international comparisons of official apologies to minorities to highlight the different ways in which governments have responded to the legacies of hisotry.
