National Sorry Day 2024
Today, 26 May is National Sorry Day. It is a day to recognise the grief, suffering and loss suffered by the stolen generations and the mistreatment of Australia’s first nations peoples.
As a non-indigenous Australian, several things sadden me about today.
The first is that very few Australians really know the truth about our history.
For example, many people would know about Australia’s so called biggest mass murder, which happened in Port Arthur in 1996, where 35 people were killed. This is what appears if you google “Australia biggest mass murder”, but that is not Australia’s biggest mass murder by a long shot.
Did you know that according to research by the University of Newcastle there was at least 9 instances of mass murders of 200 or more of our first nations people.
This same research has identified 402 mass murders (with 10,797 first nations victims) between 1788 and 1930 at the hands of the “white” person. Just have a look at the yellow dots of the map of Australia showing where these mass murders happened and how many dots there are on the map. And this research just looks at incidents with 6 or more victims. Who knows how many other first nations people were murdered in this time.
Did you know that before 1838, you could kill a first nations person in NSW and not suffer any consequences.
I hope that as part your own response from the recent referendum, you actually took the time to learn more about the history of our first nations people and actually speak to some of them.
Next I often cringe when I hear the Acknowledgement of Country from a non-indigenous person. Are they saying this because it is part of some DEI requirement or do they actually believe it. I expect it is the former.
The third thing I am sad about is that this is just one day. In my view any Acknowledgement of Country should be extended to say we are truly sorry for the mistreatment of the Australia’s first nations peoples in the past and promise to do better in the future. This way we are saying sorry on more than one day a year
If you truly want to say sorry to the first nations people of Australia, go and educate yourself about what they endured and vow that this should never be repeated.
And don’t forget National Reconciliation week starts 27 May
For those who want to learn more about the massacres here is the link to the website
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