Sorry Day

[den]

May 26th was "Sorry Day." It used to be the policy of the Australian Government to remove Aboriginal children from their families and give them a limited education, teach them how to do menial tasks and then "assign" them to a white household to help in the running of that property. Quite often the parents never saw their children again. It was, effectively, the death of the child as far as the family was concerned.

"Sorry Day" is an attempt to get the general population to think about this, and to not necessarily apologise personally, but to feel sorry that it happened, and to acknowledge that it was a terrible thing to do.

Of course, there are bogans who think they have have nothing to say sorry about because they didn't do it. If you were to say to them "Jeez mate, I know you crashed your car but I'm not sorry because I didn't do it, and none of my family did it" they would think you're a bastard.

I'm sorry the government of the day took children away from their families. It should never have happened. I'm sorry Aborigines weren't even counted as citizens until 1960. But most of all, I'm sorry there are bogans who are not sorry.

Comments

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Rabbitproof Fence is a great movie. The authorities are shown for the racist bastards they are. What amazed me was at the end of the DVD, they showed the two women who made that fence walk not once but TWICE or more, and as of the film release in 2001? they were still alive! I know I couldn't endure that kind of walking in the heat even with enough water and the right togs.

If they had made a white man do it he'd have been dead after two or three days from exposure I bet. What surprised me were the trackers, who were literally returning these children to a live of slavery were aboriginals themselves a good portion of the time.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Racist and PATRINOZING bastards. That movie makes me angry.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Anyone who liked Rabbit-Proof Fence should also go see

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Anyone who liked <i>Rabbit-Proof Fence</i> should also go see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212132/"<i>The Tracker</i></a>; directed by Rolf de Heer (<i>Dance me to my song</i>, <i>Alexandra's Project</i>, <i>Bad Boy Bubby</i>) and starring <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0347858/">David Gulpilil</a> (who played the tracker in <i>Rabbit-Proof Fence</i>).

It's a mind-blowingly good movie; it focuses on the massacres rather than the Stolen Generations, and it's also the closest thing that's ever been made to an Australian Western.