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denMay 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.
"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.
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Date: 27 May 2004 20:00 (UTC)Got any cites for that 35 year figure? Or school completion rates, comparative to the non-Aboriginal population of the time as well as to today's rates?
(school completion rates have risen drastically in the non-Aboriginal population, so you need to take account of that...)
Not saying your figures are false; I don't know.
--
As to Canada...I don't have any comparative stats on Canadians, but table 4.31 & 4.32 (Death rates for selected indigenous groups) on pages 45 & 45 of this (http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/Lookup/A70349F67002D5F6CA256ADA002860AA/$File/33150_1997.pdf) report (Mortality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians) shows that the mortality figures (both adult and infant) for Aboriginal Australians are much worse than those for Native Americans (but fairly close to the Maori figures, which is a touch surprising).
Anyone know how closely the Canadian situation parallels that of the USA? Better or worse?