"Social Justice Report 1998
1999 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior permission from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should
be directed to the Manager, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.
ISSN 1321-11
Contents
- Foreword 1
- Introduction: A Handful of Soil 2
- Chapter 1: The Aftermath for Indigenous People 14
- Chapter 2: Non-Indigenous Community Response 29
- Chapter 3: Church Responses 50
- Chapter 4: Government Responses to the Recommendations of Bringing Them Home 55
- Appendix 1: Letters to the Editor 87
- Appendix 2: Selected Inventory of Apologies and National Sorry Day Events 94
- Appendix 3: Text of Sorry Day Statement 97
- Appendix 4: Summary of Governments’ Responses to Recommendations 99
Foreword
This report presents various responses to Bringing Them Home, the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. This is not done to re-open the substance of the Inquiry, its findings or the basis of its recommendations.
The objective is to record the diverse range of responses and the perspectives they illustrate. The publication of Bringing Them Home had a marked impact on the Australian community. The ensuing public debate was sustained and intense. It stimulated the expression of views reflecting contemporary attitudes and values which directly and indirectly affect the circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
These attitudes and values will critically affect our potential for reconciliation. We must attempt to understand the full range of opinion: if we cannot allow the sincerity of competing views, no matter how much we disagree with them, then we have very little prospect of constructive engagement.
Our challenge is to bring a more balanced appreciation of our past and, importantly, a more cohesive view of our future. Considering the responses to Bringing Them Home provides us with an opportunity to understand how a genuine and just reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians may be advanced."
