National Apology Day is commemorated annually on 13 February and encourages remembrance of – and apology to – Stolen Generations and those whose lives have been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and assimilation.
The anniversary of the National Apology is a day which commemorates the event which Kevin Rudd – The Prime Minister of Australia – made a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples’ and those whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and assimilation.
On 13 February 2008, Kevin Rudd delivered the Australian Government’s National Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, acknowledging Australia’s wrongdoing which resulted in Stolen Generations.
Kevin Rudd’s apology is not the end of the matters of the Stolen Generations. Rudd was meant to fulfil a step in a guided process of reparation against human rights, not persuading Indigenous people to, ‘Get over it’, ‘Move on’, ‘Let it go’ or ‘Forgive and Forget’, and he apologised on behalf of the Government. The Government, along with the Church, were the two main organisations who hold a level of culpability for the Stolen Generations.
