The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, will warn those who boycotted the apology to the stolen generations in 2008 – among them the opposition leader, Peter Dutton – not to “repeat the mistakes of the past” and grasp the opportunity offered by the Uluru statement from the heart.
Dutton was the most senior of a handful of Coalition MPs who walked out of parliament when the then Labor prime minister, Kevin Rudd, formally apologised to the stolen generations in 2008.
The long-awaited apology had been a recommendation of the landmark Bringing them Home report in 1997. Rudd’s predecessor, John Howard, had steadfastly refused to apologise to the stolen generations, the thousands of Aboriginal people forcibly taken as children from their families over almost a century of government laws and policies.
Dutton has said he “made a mistake” by boycotting the apology.
“I didn’t appreciate the symbolism of it, and the importance to Indigenous people,” he said after becoming opposition leader in 2022.
Burney will tell a Canberra gathering for the 15th anniversary of the apology that those who walked out should not make the same mistake again.
“I know that some people who boycotted that historic day in 2008 have since expressed their regret. They now admit that it was a mistake. Don’t make the same mistake again,” Burney will say in a speech to the Healing Foundation in Canberra on Sunday.
“When a generous and gracious hand is outstretched – in partnership – it should be grasped. To do anything else would be to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
The apology “didn’t fix everything”, Burney will say, but it was an acknowledgement that, over decades, “governments of different persuasions failed” Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
“Now is the time to embrace the possibility of new ways to address challenges where old approaches haven’t worked,” she will say.
“A future that ensures we have a voice on the issues that affect us, because we know that the solutions to so many of our challenges are found in our communities – at the grassroots level.”
The Healing Foundation estimates there are more than 17,000 stolen generations survivors. More than a third of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are their descendants. In Western Australia almost half of the Indigenous population have stolen generations links.
Burney will also pay tribute to survivors who have died in the past year, including the “giants” Uncle Archie Roach and Uncle Jack Charles.
“This is the first national apology anniversary event without them, and their legacy of healing lives on,” she will say.
