26 May 2022

On this National Sorry Day, May 26, we remember the Stolen Generations and acknowledge the continued impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Let’s work together towards reconciliation and healing for future generations.

The inaugural National Sorry Day was held on 26 May 1998, a year after the Bringing Them Home report, an inquiry into past policies which resulted in Indigenous children being forcibly and traumatically removed from their families and communities. 

In February 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal National Apology in Parliament to Australia’s Stolen Generations. This apology also extended to their descendants and to the families of the children.

“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,’’ Mr Rudd said.

National Sorry Day falls on the eve of National Reconciliation Week (May 27 to June 3).

New Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already committed to pushing for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

"We will, of course, be advancing the need to have constitutional recognition of First Nations people, including a Voice to Parliament that is enshrined in that constitution," Mr Albanese said. 

The purpose of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is to ensure input from First Nations peoples at the highest level of government so that they have a voice over the laws governing their country and people. 

An Indigenous Voice to Parliament was first put forward as part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the latter written after a historic meeting of 250 Indigenous delegates at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention in 2017. 

To quote from the Uluru Statement of the Heart: “We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country."