For decades, laws passed by Australia's states and territories from the early 1900s allowed authorities to remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, and tens of thousands were taken. The 1997 Bringing Them Home report called for a national apology, but none came under the previous government. After Labor won the November 2007 election, Kevin Rudd made the apology the new Parliament's first item of business. The House of Representatives passed the motion unanimously as thousands of people watched in Canberra.
The apology was put to the House as a formal motion. It apologised for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that had inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss, and in its most quoted passage it said 'we say sorry' three times: to the mothers and fathers, to the brothers and sisters, and to the families and communities broken apart. Rudd then spoke for 20 minutes about the need for practical action to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson followed with a 20-minute speech of his own.
The removals had been devastating. Children taken from their families were more likely to suffer abuse, depression and other mental illness, and they were usually taught to reject their Aboriginal identity. Many never found their families again.
Thousands of people gathered in Canberra, and crowds watched on big screens in cities and towns across the country as the speech went out live on radio and television. Many felt the apology could not undo the pain of the past, but that it was a necessary first step toward healing. For a word that had been refused for more than a decade, the moment took only minutes.
Key people: Kevin Rudd, Brendan Nelson