National Sorry Day is observed on 26 May each year to commemorate the history and effects of forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their Indigenous families and communities. The establishment of this day was recommended by the Bringing Them Home report.
This report was issued in 1997 following the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.
from Sorry Day 2008 Action Resource: Overview; Loyola Institute, Sydney
A variety of resources have been prepared and actions planned to support Sorry Day 2008, on May 26. Among them are ...
Loyola Institute
NSW march: Unfinished Business
Wear a commemorative flower
Beyond Sorry - a residential gathering in August
National Sorry Day Committee
Loyola Institute
This is an extract from Confidential Submission No 776 to the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Children from their Families.
"I do remember my mother showing up for visits, supervised visits. We used to get excited. I just wanted her to take us away from there. Then the visits suddenly stopped. I'm told the authorities stopped them because she had a destabilising effect on us. That didn't deter my mother. She used to come to the school ground to visit us over the fence. The authorities found out about those visits. They had to send us to a place where she couldn't get to us.
To send us anywhere on mainland Queensland she would have just followed - so they sent us to the one place were she can't follow 'Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement'. By our mother visiting us illegally at that school ground she unknowingly sealed our fate. I wasn't to see my mother again for ten nightmare years.
I remember when I learnt to write letters, I wrote to my mother furiously pleading with her to come and take us off that island. I wrote to her for years, I got no reply then I realised that she was never coming for us. That she didn't want us. That's when I began to hate her.
Now I doubt if any of my letters ever got off that island or that any letters she wrote me ever stood a chance of me receiving them."
Murray's story, as recounted in the Loyola Institute's Sorry Day 2008 Action Resource: Getting in Touch with Experience
The Loyola Institute has produced a series of action resources that are readily available for personal, parish, school or community use.
Produced in PDF format and accessible through several websites, each of the five mostly double-sided A4 sheets provides a wealth of information, possible actions including reflection processes and further website links and resources. The material has been written clearly and concisely by Ms Sandie Cornish and Fr Pat Mullin SJ.
The resources are: Sorry Day 2008 Action Resource
A process for reflection from the Getting in Touch with Experience resource suggests ...
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Listen to a song by an Indigenous artist on the experiences of the Stolen Generations.
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Recall when you first became aware of the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families. How did you find out? What did you think about it? What did you feel?
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When you read the stories on this sheet, what do you feel? What do you think?
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Read one of the stories again, slowly. Place yourself inside the story imagining that you are one of the characters. Perhaps you are the child being taken away, or perhaps the
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mother or another relative. What do you see? What do you hear? How do you feel?
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What do you think and feel about the separation of Indigenous children from their families today?
Unfinished business
The NSW Sorry Day Committee will organise a march followed by a community gathering to commemorate Sorry Day 2008, the 11th anniversary of the tabling in Parliament of the Bringing Them Home report.
Members of the Stolen Generations, their families, friends, communities and supporters have been invited to join the commemorations. The march will start at 10am at the northern end of Hyde Park and proceed down Macquarie Street to Parliament House where the flag will be raised. The march then will proceed to Circular Quay and the First Fleet Park.
(further information: 02 9319 1034)
Commemorative flowers
"We seek your participation to make the 11th anniversary of the 'Bringing Them Home' report a key factor in the recognition of Australia's Stolen Generations. You can remind the current administration about this issue and you can show your solidarity for genuine remembrance and healing by wearing a native hibiscus flower on May 26, 2008."
People are being encouraged to wear a commemorative flower on Sorry Day - specifically a silk imitation of the native hibiscus, the flower which has been adopted as the national symbol of the Stolen Generations.
This was initially proposed by members of the Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation, and later endorsed by the National Sorry Day Committee. It is supported, too, by the Stolen Generations Alliance.
This flower was adopted because it is found widely across Australia and it is a survivor. Its colour denotes compassion and spiritual healing.
The Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation has produced a large quantity of silk imitation native hibiscus flowers. They can be purchased via the
corporation's website
Beyond Sorry
The Beyond Sorry gathering pamphlet says : Sometimes it takes a momentous shift in thinking to enable change to happen.
Something really wonderful happened on 'Sorry Day' that was like a collective sigh of relief across the land, filling us with awe, wonder and a yearning to grasp the message of
hope that it brought. There seemed to be an understanding that something new and important was happening and that things that truly matter - like truth, oneness of spirit, beauty,
love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the limitations that we impose on ourselves and that separate us.
Whatever it was, change was in the air and we felt able to breathe again.
Beyond Sorry - a residential gathering on August 2 and 3, at Mt Eliza - is for people who value the freedom to breathe easily. It is for those who want to grasp and explore the
opportunity that 'Sorry Day' presented. Presenters will be Majella Tracy (Cultural Conserve), Betty Pike (Beyond Sorry) and Corrie van den Bosch (Wake up and live).
National Sorry Day Committee
The Bringing them home report (BTH Report) recommended (Recommendation No 7.a) that a National Sorry Day be held each year on 26 May "to commemorate the history of forcible removals and its effects." As a result of this recommendation the community-based organisation the National Sorry Day Committee was formed. The NSDC was
established in 1998 and has been incorporated since January 2001. From the beginning, the NSDC has worked with the commitment, dedication and involvement of both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians.
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