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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison paid tribute to the anniversary on Monday to apologize to the country’s indigenous peoples.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Stock Photography.
On February 13, 2008, then-Prime Minister Kevid Rudd became the first to apologize to the so-called stolen generations in the ways of government.
Morrison said during a session in Parliament that we must continue to pay attention to the fact that, for example, more than 100,000 Aboriginal children were separated from their families and that pain and grief have been inflicted over several generations.
In previous years, the government has drawn attention to the event by publishing an annual summary of the program aimed at improving the living conditions of indigenous peoples, called “Closing the gap.”
However, as it has not been possible to meet the goals of the program, such as increasing life expectancy or improving education and health in these groups, last year the government reviewed the program and named indigenous leaders as responsible. These changes delayed the work and the results for the year will be presented instead in July, reports the Reuters news agency.
Of the more than 25 million inhabitants of Australia, about 800,000 belong to the indigenous population.
The life expectancy of Indigenous Peoples is about eight years less than the national average, and Aboriginal people are sentenced to prison to a much greater extent than other Australians.
Since 1998, May 26 also celebrates the “National Day of Lament” to highlight the injustices suffered by indigenous people during and after the colonization of the continent.
The stolen generations
Approximately 100,000 children of Aboriginal and Torressund Islanders were separated from their parents in 1910-1970 and forcibly placed in orphanages or white foster families.
The purpose of separating children from their parents was said to be part of the government’s policy of forcing ethnic assimilation.
Many of the children never saw their families again.
