Saying Sorry

Sometimes words speak louder than actions. In Canberra on Feb. 13, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd voiced regret "for the pain, suffering and hurt" of the country's disadvantaged Aboriginal minority. It was a cloudy morning, but the crowd outside Parliament House was in a sunny mood. People brown and white laughed, embraced and snapped photos. Said Mavis Garrett, 67, an Aboriginal woman from Queensland: "If I see Mr. Rudd, I think I'd just run up and give him a hug."

It was not just what Rudd said, but the way he said it. Rudd specifically addressed the so-called "stolen generation" of Aborigines. From 1910 to 1970, welfare workers and missionaries placed an estimated 50,000 mostly mixed-race children in institutions. The argument was that they were neglected or at risk and would be better off raised and educated in mainstream Australia. But many found themselves marginalized by white as well as Aboriginal society. Since a searing official report on the practice appeared in 1997, Australia's six state governments have made apologies. But Rudd's speech, in its repeated use of the word sorry, had the immediate effect of easing white guilt and softening Aboriginal pain. Previous governments took "a Band-Aid approach" to problems in the Aboriginal community such as ill-health, poor education and alcoholism "by using money to try and fix it," says Uniting Church minister Sealin Garlett. "Today the government has focused on the spirit."

More material succor would be welcome, too, of course. Some Aborigines accuse the government of avoiding the question of compensation for past wrongs, and few Australians doubt that Aborigines need more investment in health and education. But for now, many are satisfied. Murray Harrison, 70, was a member of the stolen generation. One of 13 siblings, he was found in the care of his aunt, an itinerant farm worker, and put in an orphanage at age 10. He has never forgotten his first night there. "I'd never been locked in before," he says. "For years I used to wake at night and hear that door slamming. This to me is closure." With Rudd's simple "sorry," Harrison's countrymen hear a door closing on a dark chapter of their history.