Sorry to the aborigines.
The single biggest news item in Australia this week was the apology to the aboriginal people for past misdeeds committed by the whites. In particular a period we call ‘the stolen generation’ where aboriginal children were taken from their parents and placed in white homes to give them a ‘civilized’ upbringing.
There is no doubt the intention of the whites was good and many young black kids had the chance of a decent life they would not have otherwise had. The difficulty was that they were denied their heritage and culture and no matter how well intentioned people are they don’t have the right to deny someone who cannot decide for themselves the choice.
I suppose the real issue for this country is where we go from here to assist our indigenous people have the same opportunities as every other inhabitant.
This poem is not written to provide any answers, just to make us think.
Live well,
Ollie Lind
Sorry
Does the word tell us about
Our true and shameful past?
One thing of which I have no doubt,
That’s how the die was cast.
Black children taken from their homes
to ‘help them with their lives.’
Father, mother left to roam
A wilderness of lies.
Will ‘Sorry’ ever be enough
To make up for the sin?
Fracture family, make life tough,
Consign them to the bin.
Sorry isn’t what we need
To make the wrong seem right.
We don’t need word, but timely deed
To help them in their plight.
It doesn’t matter, black or white,
When life is, oh so grim.
We must do what’s deemed as right
Help through thick and thin.
Ollie Lind
