Reflections on National Sorry Day

National Sorry Day marked a crisis in our national life. It challenged non-indigenous Australians to acknowledge the most shameful facts of their history: the forcible removal of generations of indigenous peoples from their families, acts of ‘cultural genocide’ according to our Human Rights Commission.

Crises provoke various reactions. For indigenous peoples, a national apology is indispensable to their healing. This reaction was movingly expressed around ‘the fire of unity’ in Geelong by a Koorie woman: ‘Now that "sorry" has been said, I believe I can begin healing. Before that, it was impossible.’ The healing of an individual emotional hurt requires the understanding of another. The healing of the pain of such atrocities against their race requires understanding on the part of the population at large.

The reaction of thousands of Geelong people was to express such understanding publicly. Others, however, reacted with arguments like ‘we shouldn’t say "sorry" for wrongs we didn’t personally commit, that happened in the distant past’, or ‘we have righted these past wrongs by granting indigenous peoples legal equality with other citizens, and calls to say "sorry" insult and divide the present generation of non-indigenous Australians.’ Understandable though these sentiments may be, these arguments are fallacious.

Firstly, forcible removals took place not only in the distant past, but into the 1970s when many of us were voters for the governments responsible for them.

Secondly, the effects of such family and racial dislocation can no more be removed by the granting of equal legal rights than can the effects of the laws of ‘apartheid’ by their repeal.

Thirdly, the liberal ‘individualism’ which disowns responsibility for all but personal deeds conflicts with Christian ‘communalism’. Salvation comes from membership of the community that God has covenanted in Christ. Correspondingly, sin that alienates us from that community is a communal, as well as a personal, condition. Born into a sin-infected world, we ratify that sin by our personal sin and are called to combat the rule of sin in pursuit of the rule of God. Australian Christians can hardly deny that sin has one its ugliest socio-historical manifestations in our governments’ attempts at ‘cultural genocide’. We may not share equally in the responsibility for this communal dimension of sin, but we all share the responsibility for addressing its consequences.

Crises can be resolved either constructively or destructively. An apology can’t eliminate the past, but it can bring forgiveness for it, and forgiveness unites with the forgiver. Denial of responsibility adds insult to past injury, and thus jeopardises the possibility of unity.

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