APOLOGY
TO THE
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT
ISLANDER PEOPLE
INTRODUCTION
We, the community of Canberra Baptist Church,
with the known support of numerous other Australian Baptists, offer this
heartfelt apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
We offer this apology having heard the stories
of pain, suffering and abuse of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,
particularly as they are portrayed in the National Inquiry into the
Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their
Families, `Bringing them home' (April 1997). We acknowledge that the
consequences of these experiences endure today.
We must all face the truth of the past. It lives
on in us. We must learn from it and deal with it, so that there may be
justice, reconciliation, healing and hope for the future. We therefore
recognise this crucial moment in the history of Canberra Baptist Church
as a God given opportunity for us:
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to approach the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
community and publicly express our sorrow for the hurt that has occurred;
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to acknowledge that by silent acquiescence, by moral insensitivity
or ignorance we are partly responsible for that hurt;
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and to commit ourselves to do all we can to make sure that
such things will not occur again.
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God has laid the foundation for reconciliation in
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and entrusted to us the
message and the task of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-21). We want to respond
by doing our part in shaping a society of equality, justice and solidarity.
It pains us that we have eyes, but fail to see the need in people's lives;
that we have ears, but fail to hear the cry from the soul of those who
are distressed; that we have hearts, but fail to open ourselves to the
hurt of others; that we have minds, but fail to seek and find creative
ways towards justice and reconciliation.
APOLOGY
We confess that we have sinned before God and against you.
We acknowledge that the churches played a role in the administration of
the laws and policies under which indigenous children were forcibly removed
from their parents. Your families were dislocated and generational links
were severed and we, as silent observers, have passively contributed. We
have not honoured your culture, religion and heritage. We have failed to
recognise your prior presence in the land. This land to which you belong
was occupied and claimed without fair and just negotiations and we have
profited from those acts of dispossession. We recognise with deep regret
that we have been blind to our governments making laws, and other public
institutions and churches adopting policies and practices that violated
fundamental human rights and contravened the United Nations Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948, entered
into force 1951).
We recognise and confess our failure to see that what
has been done to you denied our common humanity and degrades us all. We
acknowledge the prophetic and compassionate intentions of many missionaries
and Christian workers. At the same time Christian churches, in bringing
the Gospel to Australia often failed to acknowledge that God was already
present in this land, and often failed to distinguish between its own `Western'
culture and the good news of Jesus Christ. We acknowledge that the continuing
social dislocation, loss of personal identity and high rate of imprisonment
is often a direct result of children having been separated from their parents.
For all this we are truly sorry and apologise unreservedly.
RESOLUTIONS
| A. |
We invite all Baptist churches and Baptist Unions in Australia
to study the Bringing them home report and to embrace this God given opportunity to participate in
the apology and reconciliation process.
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| B. |
We call upon the Prime Minister of Australia to make
a sincere apology on behalf of the Australian people for the forcible separation
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.
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| C. |
We call upon the Commonwealth, State, and Territory
Governments to implement as a matter of urgency the recommendations of
Bringing them home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.
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| D. |
We commit ourselves personally and as a community to
seek greater understanding of the diffculties, needs, and aspirations
of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, and
to support the process of a just reconciliation.
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Approved at the Church Business Meeting, Nov 10, 1997.
This apology was given by Ruth Joyce on behalf of the Canberra Baptist Church.
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Response to the Apology
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(PDF Version of this document) |
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