We all make mistakes. What we are taught from a very early age is to admit when we have made one. What most of us hate, either in ourselves or in others, is an inability to say sorry, and admit that a wrong has been done.
For the second time this year, a national parliament, lead by the leader of the government, has apologised to indigenous people for the narrowness of mind, and the human failures of generations past. Today, Canadian Prime Minister, Steven Harper, apologised to the indigenous community for the mistakes made as part of the ‘residential schools’ program, which was designed to remove Native Indian, Metis, and Inuit children from their families and assimilate them into ‘white’ society. Quoting Prime Minister Harper:
“Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, ‘to kill the Indian in the child’. Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11368212.htm
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said similar words just a few months back when apologising for Australia’s attempts to ‘kill the Aboriginal in the child’ by stealing them from their families and assimilating them into white families:
“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.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/apology/text.htm
I find Canada’s announcement today as both frightening and heartening. Frightening because it yet again shows just how narrow minded and superior we were as recently as the early 70’s. Heartening because there now seems to be a wave of apologies surfacing, and at last indigenous people can stand with their heads held high and finally be vindicated. They were abused. Their unique cultures were ignored, and partially destroyed. Their place within their respective countries was at the lowest level possible. They were right to believe that what they went through was wrong; very wrong.
Why is there a habit of some cultures and countries to claim superior status, thereby having the right to dictate their ways over others? The English governments did it, and still weep that they can’t do it anymore. The American governments still do it; just look at Iraq. The American style of democracy is the standard to which we all must attain, just like the Brtitish Empire was the golden era that brought about civility as we know it. Lord knows, the English still think that without their intervention, these ’savages’ would still be eating their own shit!
I have always said that domination of the Australian indigenous people began when the English first landed on Australian soil. I’m sure they were seen as primitive and savage, and had to be brought to heel. And until the early 1970’s, that attitude prevailed. The same occured in Canada:
“In 1920, attendance (at the residential school) became compulsory by law for all children aged 6 to 15. Children were often forcibly removed from their families, or their families were threatened with prison if they failed to send their children willingly. Some have suggested that many of the practices exerted on the children were consistent with current UN conventions on genocide, though destruction of culture and language does not fit the usual definition of genocide as mass killing of ethnic or racial groups. They claim the schools systematically tried to destroy their language and their way of life. The idea of cultural genocide appears to have arisen within lawsuits against the government and churches, as advanced by lawyers.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residential_schools
When are we we ever going to learn that everyone is different, and that’s what makes this world such a great place. Religions still fight over who is the best. Fundamentalist Muslims constantly try to convert the world to radical Islam. Mormons still have their ‘missionaries’ travelling the length and breadth of this world with their clean white shirts and military haircuts, asking if they can ‘pray in your house’. Even my own father was known to say that “the Catholic faith is the one true faith of God.”
The more we apologise, humble ourselves, and admit our profound sorrow on behalf of the ignorant fools that have come before us, the more this world will begin to heal itself of some of the mindsets that have infected it for generations.
Enjoy your day.
