Time passes by so fast! Ever since finding out about it a few weeks ago through my Aboriginal Studies essay research, I planned to do something for National Sorry Day, but with assessments and work I completely lost track of the date until my mum shared something about it on Facebook. So, as it's 6pm and I'm in the middle of an assignment and it's too late to actually participate in or organise anything official this year, I'm going to post something on here.
I am so sorry. I may not have taken your land or taken your children or introduced my diseases or legally acted as if you weren't here or created this inequality, but my ancestors and I have benefited from it and you have been devastated by it. I may not actively perpetuate the inequality, but the inequality still exists and by not actively fighting it I am, without knowing it, perpetuating it. I am sorry that when I was in primary school I honestly believed that NAIDOC week was a good idea but one that was pointless at my school because my class never went to it and I didn't believe that there were any Aboriginal students there. I'm also sorry that my primary school was one where, even seven years ago, the education was such that students could respect Indigenous people and be sorry for the past without having a clue about what was actually going on in the present and where students could not even know if or when they could go into the hall to see the NAIDOC week things (and that I'm not even sure what was in the hall because I kept thinking that we'd go down there as a class but never did). I'm sorry that some of my generation are still ignorant enough to believe that this is your fault rather than realising the effect that the past can have. I am sorry that the treaty that was being negotiated never eventuated. I am sorry that despite the awareness of the Closing the Gap campaign for the past six years, the gap hasn't changed. I am sorry that even though I respect you like any other person, and even though honestly I do feel uncomfortable talking to any stranger, I would feel uncomfortable talking to a stranger who I knew to be Aboriginal because I'd want to show how much I respect that person but would feel so worried about accidentally saying something ignorant or appearing over the top when I mean it genuinely. I'm sorry that a dichotomy even exists in such a way and that being Aboriginal can't just be accepted as casually as being from Bangladesh or from Germany or from India or from England. I'm sorry that people and initiatives still try to make decisions for you rather than recognising you as human beings who have the right to make their own decisions for themselves. I'm sorry that I felt like swearing for one of the first times just then but didn't. I'm sorry that the Northern Territory Intervention is still in place, even though it was initiated to look into child sexual abuse and hasn't found one case of it in the past five and a half years. I'm sorry that that stupid intervention mandatorily took young children and checked to see whether or not they had had sex. I'm sorry that people see the Stolen Generation as being in the past when its effects are still very present and the Northern Territory Intervention is still forcibly removing children, even if the children are being returned after their dignity is breached. I'm sorry that one of my best friends has complained about the fact that there are benefits that are only available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that people are exploiting the system when any benefits given can never amount to what was taken away. I'm sorry that many Australians I know would think about the Holocaust when the term genocide is mentioned rather than the genocide that happened in our own country. And I am sorry that people think that saying sorry is enough when there is so much more that comes after that word that hasn't yet occurred because everyone heard former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd say sorry and have mostly moved on.
Please, anyone who reads this, don't be ignorant. Don't be one of those people who just assume that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people get so much handed to them when they weren't disadvantaged to begin with. Actually research the issue. Actually be educated about it before making comment. And if your in depth research points you to believe that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are given things unfairly, then say it, but in a way that is constructive rather than complaining. But I assure you that it won't.
