I've returned from a trip home for Invasion Day Australia Day and am proud to say that the recently elected government has made an announcement that it will keep it's promise to say sorry to the Stolen Generation.

If you haven't heard of that dark part of Australia's recent history a good place to start is the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara.

As a kid we often went camping along the Murray River on the Victorian/ New South Wales border. There was an old Aboriginal woman named Pigeon who often camped with us. Pigeon was the only Aboriginal adult I knew, as with most Aboriginal elders, she seemed so full of knowledge. I remember asking her a lot of questions and being shocked when she told me about the Stolen Generation and that she was one of those poor children taken from their mothers arms.

Sorry, one simple word, people like Pigeon have been waiting to hear. Not to lay blame on the current generation for previous government policies, but as acknowledgement, as recognition. . .the only way for true reconciliation to begin.

LB