On my study wall, I have a framed copy of the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples signed by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13th February, 2008. In this frame, I also have a response to the Apology from Auntie Lorraine Peeters. In the final sentence, she powerfully says, “We have a new covenant between our peoples to ensure our children (First Nations children) are carried forward, loved and nurtured and able to live a full life.”
I stood on the lawns of Parliament House that day with thousands of other people listening to the Apology delivered inside Parliament House. It was a sad, solemn day as we remembered those who were not with us to see and hear the words of the Apology; an apology that was decades overdue. It was also a day that the truth was told about the mistreatment and injustice of those children who were stolen from their families and communities and were subjected to suffering, grief, and loss.