Apology adds impact to National Sorry Day
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent apology to the Stolen Generations will add greatly to the significance of this year’s National Sorry Day on Monday 26 May, according to University of the Sunshine Coast academic Robyn Parkes Sandri.
Ms Parkes Sandri, an Indigenous academic who specialises in early childhood education, said Mr Rudd’s apology had signalled the start of a new era for the whole country and was likely to bring better educational opportunities for Indigenous children.
“Sorry Day began in 1998 as the anniversary of the release of the Bringing Them Home Report about the Stolen Generations, when it was really understood what the Aboriginal people had gone through in the past,” she said.
“We are still seeing the long-term effects of that today as Indigenous children have to survive often without a secure basis in their culture or in white culture. Without a base, kids can have no sense of belonging.
“Sorry Day this year is pretty important because it’s the first since the Prime Minister’s apology has acknowledged this lamentable past.
“Before that, there was this denying of it, which was a double indignity to Aboriginal people. But it’s Australian history now. It’s the start of moving forward.”
Ms Parkes-Sandri said there was great potential for improvements in the way Indigenous children were taught at schools.
“Indigenous people who have done well through education have done so as adults,” she said. “School hasn’t worked very well for them and their academic success has often come later in life.
“We need more flexible teaching styles and the ability to dialogue with individual students. It’s also important to develop a sense of cultural safety in schools.
“We need to look at how certain things can exclude Indigenous kids. Instead of having posters and images of only white faces in classrooms, sometimes we should have Indigenous faces and South Seas faces.”
The University of the Sunshine Coast will mark National Sorry Day with a public forum from 10am to noon on Monday 26 May, followed by a sausage sizzle and the painting of a Sorry Day mural.
— Terry Walsh