Op-Ed: About bloody time- Australia finally to apologize to Aboriginals

After 200 years, a lot of ignorant legalistic babble, and some pretty disgusting political double standards, Australia will formally apologize to Aboriginal Australia. The symbolism, thankfully, does apparently mean something to the recipients.

The previous government, for reasons which may never be known, and will definitely never make sense, refused to make a formal apology to the Aboriginal people. The “Sorry” issue has been an irritant to a lot of Aussies since, and the first National Sorry Day packed out Sydney Harbor Bridge with marchers determined to make a point. Now, the new government is finally saying Sorry. Not that an apology is considered any sort of compensation for centuries of misery, but it’s a formal acknowledgment. There are two Australias, and non-Aboriginals can’t claim to have much more than a basic, usually second or third hand understanding of the horrors. That doesn’t mean that "Sorry" isn’t a genuine statement as far as the society is concerned. The status and situation of Aboriginals has been a national ulcer, a knowledge of inequality, injustice and suffering perpetrated in Australia that has annoyed generations of Aussies. The Aboriginal people achieved the highest vote in an Australian referendum when given the vote in the 1960s. It was around a 95% Yes vote. So now, something’s being done on the official level, long overdue, but very welcome. Yahoo/AP's article is a pretty fair appraisal. The article needs to be read for the Aboriginal comments, too, which explain their feelings, and need to be read in context with this fairly standard bit of political spiel: “Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, elected last November and whose pledge to apologize overturns a decade of refusals by his predecessor, has ruled out paying compensation. But he says he is determined to help all Aborigines achieve better health, education and living standards.

"This is about getting the symbolic covenant, if you like, between indigenous and non-indigenous Australia right and then moving on," Rudd said this week.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said Wednesday the apology would "be made on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people." Her statement reflects the lingering concerns of many Australians that they should not be made responsible for mistakes by their forebears.

Aborigines — 450,000 among Australia's population of 21 million — are the country's poorest ethnic group and are most likely to be jailed, unemployed and illiterate. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than other Australians.” You see the kind of legalistic logic, totally wrong, incidentally, that has made a mockery of an issue of basic justice and equity. Even the legal system hasn't been too impressed with the situation. We had a Stolen Generation ruling a couple of years ago which was largely comprised of the presiding judge’s statement to the effect that there was no justice or fairness in his decision. He spelled out in detail that he had no choice but to make a ruling against the Aboriginal claimants because that was how the law was applied at the time. He simply couldn’t take the claims into a modern legal context, much as he clearly wanted to do just that. “Responsibility” is part of being alive, even for politicians and lawyers. We may not have personally committed the past atrocities, but we’re well aware of the current situation, which is totally unacceptable. That is our responsibility. We are supposed to be a democratic, libertarian society, not an excuse factory. Like Rudd says, there’s a lot to be said for moving on, and getting Aboriginal Australia the basic amenities everyone else has always had. However- This is supposed to be the land of the “Fair Go”, egalitarian justice, the basic Australian value system, and that’s not getting much traction, either, in practical terms. There's 450,000 Australians getting nothing like a Fair Go, relative to the other 21 million. There are a range of state and Federal programs supposed to be helping, but there's a massive majority of Aboriginals who aren't seeing any real benefit. Fortunately, the Aboriginal people are resilient, and haven't been waiting for us to get the act together. They’ve been reasserting their culture, and building a new culture, on top of the old traditions. The level of dedication is quite incredible, and it’s everywhere in Aboriginal activist groups and community work. This is a step. There’s a marathon to run. And it is our responsibility. "Fair Go" doesn't come with a color scheme.