Anglican Communion News Service

Church leaders in Australia are maintaining the pressure on the federal government for a national apology over the issue of the "stolen generation" of Aboriginal children who were removed from their parents and communities [see ACNS 2110].

"The recent pedantic suggestion that the percentage of children who were removed does not warrant the use of the term 'stolen generation' is insensitive and regrettable," said the Most Revd Peter Carnley, Australian Primate, in his Easter message. "That successive governments did not succeed in applying the policy in an even more thorough-going and excessive way is hardly something to boast about."

The Archbishop said it was a matter of national integrity that an apology should be given in a situation where the policies of the government had been described as "not only racist but genocidal" in the report 'Bringing Them Home'.

"It is clear that those policies were partly motivated by an attempt to achieve the elimination of Aboriginality," Archbishop Carnley said. "Regardless of the mistaken intention of those who put it into place, we must frankly own that the practice . . . was wrong and hurtful. No amount of rationalisation can hide the need for all Australians to come to terms with the shadow-side of our history."

Representatives of some Aboriginal people have threatened to demonstrate at the Olympic Games in Sydney in September 2000 to highlight their plight. In a statement issued by the National Council of Churches, Archbishop Carnley joined with other church and Aboriginal leaders in advising against any violence. However, the statement also calls on national leaders to "think again" about an apology to Aboriginal people.

Item from: Market Place