saying the word

(From the Age, 28/11/07)
Prospect of sorry heartening says woman trying to salve her suffering

Valerie Linow: Awarded compensation.

Annabel Stafford
November 28, 2007
VALERIE Linow knows how powerful the word "sorry" can be. Taken from her Aboriginal parents at the age of two, shunted between homes and then into domestic service where she was abused and raped, she didn't think healing was possible.

When she was invited to walk behind a banner proclaiming "A Journey of Healing" in the 2000 reconciliation march across Sydney's Harbour Bridge, Ms Linow refused.

"I had so much hurt because of what the authorities had done to me, I just couldn't do it," she said. But as she walked across the bridge on her own, "I looked around and I saw so many people … different nationalities walking with us. I saw 'sorry' written in the sky. It was so overwhelming to me — I didn't feel like I was on my own."

Ms Linow now believes that healing is possible, and that saying sorry is a big part of the recovery.

This week, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd promised to make a formal apology for past government policies of removing children from Aboriginal homes. Mr Rudd's promise came after he dodged questions from 3AW's Neil Mitchell about whether he would use the word "sorry".

Indigenous leader Lowitja O'Donoghue said yesterday that "nothing other than 'sorry' is acceptable to us". "I think it is time for the leader of this country to accept the truth of history," she said. "And that is the word that Aboriginal people are waiting for."

Ms O'Donoghue said Mr Rudd should consult indigenous people about the form the apology should take, but that it should "acknowledge the truth".

John Bond, of the Stolen Generations Alliance, said Australia should take its cue from Canada, which issued a reconciliation statement recognising the destructive impact of land dispossession on its native people.

Mr Bond said that using the word "sorry" was crucial. For many stolen generation members "sorry" was "the only word that interests them", he said. "There has been some playing around with words like 'deep regret' and so on, so that people like Lowitja are just angry about it."

Reconciliation Australia co-chairman Mark Leibler said the Australian Declaration towards Reconciliation, issued in 2000, was a good basis for a formal apology.

But first, there had to be "respectful consultation" with indigenous people about what they wanted.

An apology also had to be combined with efforts "to cut the (17-year) gap in life expectancy between indigenous and other Australians", he said.

Ms Linow was "speechless" on hearing that an apology might come soon. "I never in my life thought I would hear this apology made before I passed away," she said.

Saying sorry
CANADA 1998 "… expresses to all aboriginal people in Canada our profound regret for past actions of the Federal Government, which have contributed to these difficult pages in the history of our relationship together."

VICTORIA 1997 "… apologises to the Aboriginal people on behalf of all Victorians for the past policies under which Aboriginal children were removed from their families and expresses deep regret at the hurt and distress this has caused and reaffirms its support for reconciliation between all Australians."

NSW 1997 "… apologises unreservedly to the Aboriginal people of Australia for the systematic separation of generations of Aboriginal children from their parents, families and communities."

SA 1997 "… expresses its deep and sincere regret at the forced separation of some Aboriginal children from their families and homes which occurred prior to 1964, apologises to these Aboriginal people for these past actions and reaffirms its support for reconciliation between all Australians."

QLD 1999 "… recognises the critical importance to indigenous Australians and the wider community of a continuing reconciliation process, based on an understanding of, and frank apologies for, what has gone wrong in the past and total commitment to equal respect in the future."