It’s been a special week in Australia.

Kevin Rudd, the new Prime Minister, made the first act of the new parliament a deeply symbolic one: an apology to the aboriginal people for their treatment, specifically for the policy of assimilation that created the Stolen Generations.

It was a powerful, emotional moment which I watched on the TV in India, proud and relieved that Australia had got to this point, and proud of the support that I’ve heard for the decision to apologize from so many Australians. Peter Carey had been on the TV the night before and said that the previous PM, Howard, had appealed to the worst elements in many Australians - and that this was a moment that appealed to the best.

This short article by Richard Flanagan - one of my favourite Aussie writers - sums up my position far more eloquently than I ever could.

It is true that the apology will not alter the condition of Aboriginal people. The hurt won’t end, nor the misery and inequality that sees indigenous Australians with a life expectancy 17 years less than non-indigenous Australians. But it is a fundamental and necessary step towards Australians coming together to address their national ills, such as the violence and substance abuse of remote indigenous communities, the poverty and unemployment of urban Aborigines, and of once more looking at the matters of a treaty, land rights, and compensation to the survivors of assimilation.

These are complex issues. But in just half a century, Australia transformed itself from an Anglo-Saxon colony into one of the world’s most successful migrant nations. We did that; we can, if we wish, do this. Every nation sins. The measure of their greatness is their capacity to admit to them.

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