I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
I would also like to acknowledge Her Excellency, the Governor-General.
To be here every year with you remains one of my greatest honours as Prime Minister.
I particularly want to welcome the survivors who grace us with your presence here this morning. Your strength gave us all the chance of a better Australia.
When we look back to that extraordinary day 18 years ago, we are looking back to the fulfilment of a promise.
It was long overdue, held back for too long by those – John Howard so prominent among them – who feared that saying sorry would be calamitous for our country.
It was anything but.
Our nation came together, united in the fundamental decency that I believe remains our truest guiding light.
The Apology was a moment of catharsis, and it was a moment of healing.
It remains – and I suspect will always remain – my proudest day as a parliamentarian.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke the words that were heard right across this nation. And as he spoke, I looked to the faces in the gallery above.
I saw tears. I saw relief. And I saw looks of quiet pride from those who had fought for so long to bring about that act of justice and healing.
Survivors with the grace and the bigness of spirit to accept our Apology.
As I said in the chamber yesterday, the Apology was an honest reckoning with our history.
It was a recognition that children were torn from their families and from their culture, and that what was broken could not be easily put together.
I think of when the great Lowitja O’Donoghue finally saw her mother Lily for the first time in 33 years – having been taken from her at the age of 2.
Neither could speak the other’s language. As her biographer Stuart Rintoul wrote:
The reunion was not easy. They did not embrace. They did not know how to be with one another.
The wounds carried by the Stolen Generations are so profoundly deep.
But the Apology didn’t just look to the past – it was a call to action for the future.
A call that was – at its heart – deeply patriotic, true to our abiding instincts for better, fairer, stronger Australia.
An Australia in which we have closed the gap.
An Australia in which all Australians get the same chance in life.
In which all Australians have power over their destiny.
When we look back to that day in February 2008, we rightly reflect on the courage of those who made it possible.
And the courage of those who came here to this very building, the pinnacle of a system that had so often let them down.
So many of the finest moments in our history have been defined by resilience, by perseverance, and above all, by courage.
And we saw it exemplified that day, and every day leading up to it, by every member of the Stolen Generations who had spoken up.
For themselves and for those who could not.
And for those who were no longer with us.
What that courage held within it was not just the chance for healing. It held the opportunity of a better future. Of a nation brought closer together.
Once again I would like to acknowledge the then Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, who recognised that bipartisanship was essential.
I particularly want to express my gratitude for the ongoing work of Stolen Generations organisations, driven by survivors, which provide the services and support their communities need.
Our Government will continue to support survivors of the Stolen Generations. Today I announce up to $87 million over four years for specialised support services.
These services include family tracing and reunification which are vital in supporting healing and acknowledging the traumatic and intergenerational impacts of forced removal from family, culture and Country.
Next year, it will be 30 years since the release of the Bringing Them Home report – the report of the inquiry into the Stolen Generations.
I always find it worth returning to the words of Mick Dodson, who said:
I know of no Indigenous person who told their story to the inquiry who wanted non-Indigenous Australians to feel guilty – they just wanted to people to know the truth.
I am pleased Mick’s daughter, Shannan Dodson, is here with us today, and I’d like to acknowledge her great contribution through the Healing Foundation.
Truth is essential because we can only truly know where we’re going if we know where we’ve been.
That is the great journey we can be on together.
Last October, I attended the 40th anniversary of the Hawke Government handing back Uluru to its traditional owners.
And I turned to the words Aunty Pamela Taylor, who had shared this memory a decade earlier:
We were so happy that after all that struggle, all the talking, the fight to get it back – that it was finally going to be given back. … Everybody drew together to celebrate, it was a really happy time.
And that is a microcosm of the even greater Australia we can be.
Saying sorry was never intended as the final word, but as the beginning of a bigger, brighter story.
A story in which we keep working to Close the Gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians until that gap belongs to history.
Closing the Gap is a national mission and a moral imperative. And it is the work of generations.
We measure tangible outcomes that change peoples’ lives for the better.
Achieving better outcomes in health and education.
Planning the economic empowerment that nourishes aspiration and invests in hard work, laying the ground for the success Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can build for themselves.
As we see results, we draw encouragement from every single reminder that difficult does not mean impossible.
However, we cannot close our eyes to the reality that there are areas where progress has stalled.
It is starkly clear that we have no room for complacency.
And as the recent alleged terrorist attack in Perth reminded us, the forces of racism remain a real and present danger.
I repeat to you – and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – the message I have been delivering in Parliament: We see you. We stand with you.
As we gather today to remember, we continue our efforts. We continue what’s working, and we work out solutions for what doesn’t.
And our Government knows that there is no better path forward than listening to communities and partnering with locals.
The story of the Apology began when we – as a nation – decided to listen. To open our ears and open our hearts.
We thank you for what you made possible.
And we vow that the new chapter we began to write together that day is one that we continue to write.
With determination.
With optimism.
And above all, with each other.