BY GARY MEYERHOFF
DARWIN — There have been mixed reactions to the October 24 apology made to indigenous people by the Northern Territory Labor government before a gallery packed with members of the stolen generations: some see it as the dawning of a new era for the territory, while others in the Aboriginal community believe it should have gone a lot further.
The apology means that the Australian Capital Territory is now the only state or territory parliament not to have apologised for past wrongs. Prime Minister John Howard, however, is refusing to budge on his stonewalling of calls to apologise.
The apology by new Labor chief minister Clare Martin came after an embarrassing series of backflips. The first motion put to the parliament on October 23 immediately came under fire from stolen generation groups for failing to offer a direct apology, instead extending only "heartfelt sympathy, sorrow and condolence".
Labor hastily amended it and put the new motion to parliament the following day. The redrafted version explicitly uses the word "apologises", while also recognising "the profound sense of loss and emotional trauma suffered by both the removed children and the communities from which they were taken" and calling for the Commonwealth to make a formal and specific apology of its own.
Denis Burke, the former chief minister defeated by Martin in the August election and now the leader of the opposition, called the apology "a sham and a deception". A number of those in the public gallery, including Aboriginal activist Maurie Ryan-Japarte, turned their backs on Burke during his speech.
Matthew Bonson an Aboriginal man and a member of the Labor government, broke down as he read out letters from his grandmother to the territory's administrator.
Marilyn Scrymgour, the Labor member for Arafaluen, and the first indigenous women elected to the territory parliament, went further, almost rebuking her own government's apology by saying that "the more subtle but simply destructive child welfare assimilation practices continued to self-government".
Self-government was won in 1975, but Martin's apology is only to indigenous people who were affected by the Commonwealth Ordinance Act between 1918 and 1957.
The Aboriginal community remains divided on Martin's actions. Many believe it is a good first step, some even describe it as wonderful, but there are also some within the community who say that the apology doesn't go far enough.
While recognising that the apology is a necessary first step towards reconciliation, respected indigenous community leader June Mills believes it should have been extended to all indigenous people who have been affected by racist policies, not just those affected by the Commonwealth Ordinance Act.
A Larakiah elder, Mills, who is running for the Senate on the Socialist Alliance ticket, told Green Left Weekly, "I don't want sorries, I want action in the form of reparations and a huge injection of funds into cultural maintenance and cultural activity programs. This should address the damage being done under the assimilation and integration policy."
"Despite all of the progress over the last 50 years there still hasn't been much change on the ground. People still have their colonialist attitudes", Mills said.
Mills also called for practical steps to be taken, including the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the royal commission into black deaths in custody (and investigations into why they haven't been carried out before now), a massive increase in funding for legal services for young indigenous people and the immediate repeal of the territory's "sentencing guidelines", the repressive Public Order and Anti-Social Conduct Act and council by-laws which have similar effects.
"If these actions were taken", Mills said, "we could begin to actually address some of the complex issues facing our people."