Sorry
Imagine your whole society is stolen away to mars. Everything is alien. You are told not to cuddle your children, for them not to embrace family. Family is taken away .Your religion is desecrated, you cannot even pray to God, there is no solace. You cannot escape on any level.
Think about it…………………………………………………………
Sorry business; Sorry to our land the church of its natives.
May the land rejoice today, from its red centre a whisper of relief?
May the trees relax their battle for the soil?
May the soil stand firm, proctor of our souls.
I ask you, the people of the never never
The ones who know the dreaming
The ones who can sing with the land.
I ask you to share,
To allow us all to live with pride in your culture.
Your history is ours and ours yours.
Please forgive and give.
The parliamentary speeches on sorry day gave me mixed emotions. I cried and clapped to the bush, the land, to all aboriginals from the past to present. Its not just about the stolen ones, it’s about all of you, the destruction of your culture, your religion, our shame.
I felt the speeches still came from a very colonialist view, aimed at you assimilating to us, the same old story. I’ve read extensively on aboriginal history and would recommend the book “Holding Yawuly” by Zohl De Ishtar, Spinifex press. This book gave me an understanding of the benefits of our aboriginal people living their culture. A culture lived not trapped in museums or tourist venues. I got a glimpse of your religion, how wonderful it is. What was written on that piece of paper in the dish given to the Speaker?
It’s about time we finished that revolution that was started in the sixties. A cultural revolution. We the baby boomers and anyone else that wants to join in can leave this space of time that we live in with pride. We can leave our history pages with substance for the future. All of us as a nation.
I believe instead of compensation being given to individuals, it should go to communities and you educating us, teaching us your culture, sharing.
Michelle Pullen
Wendy Slee
Hear hear!
You have said it all so well Michelle!