Friday, June 30, 2000

Australia is gearing up for the Olympic Games which will be held in Sydney in September. But the government is concerned that the media might concentrate on the degrading conditions in which too many Aboriginals still live and that this would undercut public support for some good things which are at last being done.

Australia is gearing up for the Olympic Games which will be held in Sydney in September. Teams from this sports-mad country of only 19 million people are world champions in 37 sporting events. So they are pulling out all the stops to welcome the world. I have seen some of the impressive facilities.

There is, however, one cloud in the sunny Australian sky as far as the government there is concerned, a concern that the media might concentrate on the degrading conditions in which too many Aboriginals still live and that this would undercut public support for some good things which are at last being done.

The silver lining to that cloud in the minds of some who have been working for reconciliation is that this event could give the prime minister a world platform to make the wholehearted apology to the Aboriginal people he has so far resisted.

In my book, "Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate," I devote a chapter to the grassroots movement that is sweeping Australia aimed at getting an honest picture of past abuses and giving the Aborigines a fair deal today. I describe the National Sorry Day which followed the publication of the report of an inquiry into the taking of Aboriginal children from their families and putting them into institutions or foster homes. It had gone on for over a hundred years and what shocked people most was that a policy which they thought was helping Aboriginal people, and for which many people labored selflessly, turned out to have been riddled with abuse, cruelty and deep down a philosophy that white is better.

The National Sorry Day was followed a year later by a Journey of Healing, conceived by Audrey Kinnear, an Aborigine adviser on health issues who was one of those who was taken from her family and whom I quote in my book. The idea of a journey of healing touched a chord in thousands of people who have found a creative way to work for new attitudes.

This was followed two month ago by the launching of Journey 2000 at a press conference in Melbourne by former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and Aboriginal leader, Dr. Lowitja O'Donoghue. They were blunt about the changes needed before the Sydney Olympics focused world attention on "the Third World conditions of many indigenous Australians."

Fraser called the removal of Aboriginal children from their families "one of the most painful acts in Australia's history." He said that it was a hard thing for non-indigenous Australians to understand that the history they had been taught about early settlement was "not particularly accurate." People of his generation had to recognize this. "It is enormously important," he said, "for those of us who are in a position to influence opinions to advise Australians as to what has happened, and what ought to happen now as a consequence. We need a much greater national determination to address past wrongs."

The former prime minister said that an apology did not imply guilt but implied a recongnition that an injustice occurred and a will and a determination to try to do something about the fact that many people suffered as a result of that injustice.

At a public meeting in Adelaide last month chaired by the chief justice, one of the speakers was Michael Brown, who had discovered that one of his family ancestors was involved in a massacre of Aboriginal people in 1853. This led him, he said, to make a personal apology to an Aborigine and was the beginning of a personal commitment to reconciliation.

Speaking on behalf of non-indigenous Australians and addressing the Aborigines present, he said, "We are not talking here just about the rights of one tiny fragment of our population--but about what sort of country Australia will be and is seen to be. We are not dealing with an ‘Aboriginal problem' but an ‘Australian' problem, not trying to assist your healing only, but to find our own. We are reaching for a historic national movement every bit as significant as the Centenary of Federation, as becoming a republic. Your suffering and pain can be, must be, the catalyst for shaping us as a just, inclusive, compassionate and productive society."

Last week (May 27) the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation presented to the nation a document on what true reconciliation would require. Prime Minister John Howard, along with the Governor General and the state premiers, received the document at the Sydney Opera House. The recommendations outlined broad strategies for governments to work on and included a form of apology. Even before the event the prime minister made it clear that no apology would be forthcoming from him. Hence the hope by some that he would reconsider by September.

Australian writer, John Willams, addressing relations with Aborigines in the international magazine, "For a Change," says that during the games, the penny might drop about what is really important the life of Australia: "This much-loved country may be approaching a vital moment of truth. We need, if you like, to take a deep breath and go for gold."