Right Time To Say Sorry
October 13, 2007 – 9:11 am | by Duncan
John Howard has opened a new door with his policy announcement on reconciliation. Howard on Thursday evening told the Australian nation that he was ready to lead the next phase of Australia’s move through reconciliation, calling for a national referendum on the formal recognition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the indigenous people of Australia.
John Howard introduces the move by referring to the recent legislation surrounding intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.
“This intervention – and in particular the public’s reaction to it – has been a watershed in Indigenous affairs in Australia. It has overturned 30 years of attitudes and thinking on Indigenous policy. The response from people around Australia has again highlighted to me the anguish so many Australians feel about the state of Indigenous Australia and the deep yearning in the national psyche for a more positive and unifying approach to Reconciliation.”
OK John. The intervention brought the federal government back from thirty years of leaving reconciliation in the too hard basket.
“This new Reconciliation I’m talking about starts from the premise that individual rights and national sovereignty prevail over group rights. That group rights are, and ought to be, subordinate to both the citizenship rights of the individual and the sovereignty of the nation. This is Reconciliation based on a new paradigm of positive affirmation, of unified Australian citizenship, and of balance – a balance of rights and responsibilities; a balance of practical and symbolic progress. It is this balance which holds the key to unlocking overwhelming support among the Australian people for meaningful Reconciliation.”
Individual rights and national sovereignty are concepts at the heart of the colonialism that has got us where we are today. It was the ignorance of group rights that led to the belief that the continent of Australia was unclaimed and open to ownership by the British. If there is to be any sense of balance, then individual rights, national sovereignty and group rights need to kept in tension. That of course will require governments with great skills of diplomacy, patience and discernment.
“I have never felt comfortable with the dominant paradigm for Indigenous policy – one based on the shame and guilt of non-indigenous Australians, on a repudiation of the Australia I grew up in, on a rights agenda that led ultimately and inexorably towards welfare dependency and on a philosophy of separateness rather than shared destiny. This nation spent (and wasted) a lot of time in the last 30 years toying with the idea of a treaty implying that in some way we are dealing with two separate nations. To me, this goal was always fundamentally flawed and something I could never support. We are not a federation of tribes. We are one great tribe; one Australia. I still believe that a collective national apology for past injustice fails to provide the necessary basis to move forward. Just as the responsibility agenda is gaining ground it would, I believe, only reinforce a culture of victimhood and take us backwards.”
Saying sorry is not about shame John. Collective responsibility for a nation’s past does not need to begin or end with embarrassment and disgrace. Apology paves the way for recognition of hurt, the giving and acceptance of forgiveness, and the shared will to work together for a better future.
Nations are almost always federations of tribes. Throughout the world attempts to ignore that fact have resulted in either the denigration of particular cultures or the disintegration of inter-tribal trust. Unity comes not from uniformity, but from reconciled diversity.
In his interview with the press, recorded on his Prime Minister’s web site, John says that he has no intention of saying sorry for the treatment of Aboriginal peoples, citing that the majority of middle Australia would not support it. A responsible government would take some responsibility for the education of citizens in their shared responsibilities for nationhood, including responsibilities for reconciliation. The present government is pouring millions of dollars into educating citizens about their responsibilities for the environment, stewardship of electricity and water, and internet safety. How about pouring millions of dollars into helping Australian citizens share responsibility for reconciliation?
Getup! Australia is responding to John Howard’s announcements by calling for the next parliament and PM say ’sorry’ as their very first act on the very first day. See the campaign page: The First Act Is Saying Sorry.
“Australia’s parliament holds a key to this new way forward - symbolically and practically. An apology is not about guilt or shame or individual responsibility - it is the embodiment of the spirit of reconciliation, and the springboard for a nation committed to stamp out the systemic ills that still flow from a nation unable to address its past wrongs. After over two hundred years of dispossession and ten years of despair, we must use this startling pre-election conversion to push for so much more: a commitment to close the health gap; Australia’s signing of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples; a consulted and empowered Indigenous community enjoying the rights and privileges of a first-world country - not just a non-binding amendment to the Constitution’s preamble.”
Join high profile leaders on Indigenous issues in the Getup! blog, giving their opinion on John Howard’s startling pre-election conversion and plan to amend the Constitution’s preamble.
2 Responses to “Right Time To Say Sorry”
By djfoobarmatt on Oct 13, 2007 | Reply
Nice one Duncan. I especially like your point about putting some money towards educating Australians about reconciliation.