Remember Me: Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Bringing Them Home Report
Never again: Telling the truth ensures a better future
By Julian Pocock, [Former] Executive Officer, Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care
It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since HREOC completed its National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families with the release of its report, Bringing Them Home.
Sadly the launch of the report was overshadowed by the extraordinary events at the opening of the 1997 Australian Reconciliation Convention when audience members stood and turned their backs on Prime Minister John Howard. As one of those audience members I felt compelled to turn away from a Prime Minister that was acting in a manner that showed no regard for the countless Australians – black and white – who had committed to the reconciliation process. If Mr Howard’s aim was to make an impression he certainly succeeded. Reflecting now I have some regret for turning my back, as it’s probably better to look at the faces of those we have some disagreement with if we are serious about reconciliation.
When the report was released at the convention, I remember talking with a delegate from the Victorian Aboriginal community who commented that “never again” could people say they didn’t know the truth. Sadly some have sought to discredit and diminish Bringing Them Home. The report brought the story of the Stolen Generations out of the shadows and into the centre of Australia’s consciousness. It was only able to do so due to the dignity and bravery with which families and people affected by removal policies told their stories. Another speaker at the 1997 Reconciliation Convention, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, spoke of the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa, established to document the truth about apartheid and reconcile a nation savagely divided on racial grounds.
It struck me then that our own nation’s process of reconciliation was deficient. We didn’t start with the telling of the truth. My family, like any I suppose, places importance on telling the truth. When we do something wrong, telling the truth and saying sorry helps us heal and move on. Bringing Them Home was where the truth of this nation’s history was told. The 1997 Reconciliation Convention was our opportunity to connect truth with reconciliation – an opportunity lost.
Since 1997 many have argued that the process of reconciliation has stalled. Arguments have been put that the Howard Government’s approach of ‘practical’ reconciliation has diminished the reconciliation process while failing to deliver enough of the practical improvements in living standards promised. My view is that in 1997 Bringing Them Home provided an opportunity to connect the truth of our nation to a reconciliation process that was searching for a way forward. When Bringing Them Home was silenced, so was the truth and at that point our national process of reconciliation faltered.
[Continued in the Report]