Sunday, 13 February was the 14th anniversary of the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
In honour of the anniversary, Prime Minister Scott Morrison MP today (14th) delivered a speech to the House of Representatives. He was followed by the Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Hon Ken Wyatt AM MP.
The Prime Minister reminded all Australians that we are ‘on a journey to make peace with our past.’
‘And it’s a difficult journey and it is an important one, to draw together the past, the present, and future, so we can truly be one and free,’ Prime Minister Morrison said.
‘We don’t turn aside from the injustices, contentions and abrasions. That’s what successful liberal democracies do. We must remember if we are to shape the future, and to do so wisely.’
In 2008, then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised on behalf of the Australian Government to the Stolen Generations – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities by successive colonial and Australian governments.
The speech was delivered in a televised statement to both Houses of Parliament and to members of the Stolen Generations present in the House of Representatives.
At the end of today’s speech, Prime Minister Morrison spoke of hope.
‘Hope for a reconciled nation - its people at one with their past and with each other - and open to shaping their future together, he said.
‘That is what we continue to work for, and that is what we pledge ourselves to do so once again.’
Read the full speech at Ministerial Statement: Anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
Read Minster Wyatt’s full speech at: TBC
For audio and an accessible video of the original speech including a transcript, see Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples.