If Australia can do it......?
Your Words' Worth
At long last, Australia is waking up to the centuries of suffering that have been imposed on Elder peoples. Now if only the U.S. and Canada could follow this good example...
Here's the story from Reuters:
CANBERRA - Aborigines playing didgeridoos and smeared with white body paint overturned hundreds of years of British tradition in Australia on Tuesday by taking part in the official opening of the nation's new parliamentary session.
The indigenous ceremony came a day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers an historic apology to Aborigines for past assimilation policies, in which aboriginal children were taken from their families to be raised in white households.
Aboriginal elder Matilda House, standing barefoot and wearing a coat of animal skins, delivered a traditional message stick to Rudd to mark the first sitting of parliament since Rudd's Labor Party won power in last November's elections.
"With this welcome comes a great symbolism, the hope of a united nation through reconciliation," House told the politicians and guests in a crowded Members Hall.
The welcome was followed by traditional dances from Aborigines, some carrying boomerangs, and indigenous Torres Strait Islanders, with some of the performers wiping away tears over the symbolism of the event.
For more of the story, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23123014/
Access: Public
indigenous peoples
July 2008