Sorry day

Today marks one of Australia's most important day; Sorry day.

It has been a long awaited for the government to publicly apologise to the Indigenous people of Australia, of past wrong acts. Howard government didn't want to apologise, as it was their view that neither their government nor the generation today, did any wrong doings to the Indigenous people.

There is no words that can describe how I am feeling right now; it's not like I'm happy or delighted or sad, but it's a day to commemorate the footstep taken, to do right, for once, and has apologised to Aboriginal people for the pain and suffering inflicted upon them since British colonisation. Especially to the Stolen Generations. The stolen generations are the children who are removed from their families by governments, welfare groups and churches and placed into "white" (ang moh - i stress the factor "white") foster families. It was a painstaking process of what the white did to the Indigenous people. The white people (British ppl when they colonised Australia) made it a point to eradicate the black people. It was horrific. Children were removed and placed into white foster families to be raised as slaves or labourers and hope to eradicate the black race. Soon, this practice was exercised up until like early 1970s (which was still quite shocking).

Anyhow, removing the children from their families meant that everything known to them (culture, families, relatedness to their natural environment and people, language) were totally destroyed. Losing everything that is you, have destroyed their wellbeing, their soul, their lives; Do you ever wonder why there's so many Aboriginal people nowadays you see that are outcasts in society? Even on the streets... No one gave them any chance since white people came. They were not even in teh Australia census in the 1970s as they were socially outcasted!

So today, it brought a few tears to my eyes seeing the government making the apology to Indigenous people of Australia, as after all, they were the first people on Australia land and since then, we have taken everything from them; their land, their families and tried to eradicate their culture and everything about them. It's at least a bridge to start healing the process together, as one nation together. It's a long way to go but at least Australia has said sorry. It's the start to a long process of healing, rediscovering their culture once again, being given the same privileges and opportunities that the "normal" Australian have.