Kevin Rudd National Apology to the Stolen Generations on 13 February 200

one in ten Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children were adopted to non�Aboriginal families or institutionalised

Peter Read in 1981. The Stolen Generation: The removal of Aboriginal children in NSW 1883 to 1969 marked the beginning of the end of the silence. It sparked political debate

1997 Bringing Them Home report, which recommended 54 reforms, including reparations and an apology, spawn from that article

Most media reports after this apology effectively closed the era of debate on the stolen generation. It placed family placing issues a thing of the past.

Koori Mail (2008) aknowledged the apology, but it focussed on the Bringing Them Home report, and the desire to pursue the recommendations

Koori mail vs Mainstream Australian media: Mainstream stating it is an end of an era, Koori mail saying it is too late, asking for action

Darwin's Going Home conference was one part of the campaign among Stolen Generations survivors for justice, compensation and recognition that had begun with the establishment of Link-Up services and organisations such as the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) in the early 1980s.They wanted to make sure that the injustices of the past never happen again! (p. 8)

Howard argued that Australians today were not responsible for injustices of the past and that he did not share the critical view of Australian history. Howard did not want to use the word apology, but Rudd (the opposition) did

Liberal discourses on the Apology, which construe it in part as an act of emotional healing, position Aboriginal peoples 'not as having justifiable claims for economic compensation and warranted grievances ... but in terms of their emotional needs'.

Writer states: apologies can be mobilised to place injustices firmly in the past, and thus remove consideration of historical trauma and consequences of colonisation in future policy-making. THIS IS WHAT THE MEDIA SAID