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Canberra: Australia apologised yesterday to its indigenous people for past suffering in a watershed Parliament vote that drew an emotional outpouring of relief from Aborigines across the country.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he wanted to remove "a great stain from the nation's soul" with his formal apology to Aborigines, and open a new chapter in the often painful history of race relations in Australia.
"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these, our fellow Australians," Rudd said in Parliament, reading from the motion.
The apology is directed at tens of thousands of Aborigines who were forcibly taken from their families as children under now abandoned assimilation policies.
Top priority
"For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry," the motion said. "And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."
Aborigines remain the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group, and Rudd has made improving their lives one of his government's top priorities.
"This is a historic day," said Tom Calma, who gave the Stolen Generations' formal response. "Today our leaders across the political spectrum have chosen dignity, hope and respect as the guiding principles for the relationship with our nation's first people."
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