I'm not sorry
I don't know about you but I was born here forty years ago, which means I was a native before more than half the living aboriginal population. I also don't see why the current federal government should apologise for the actions of other people, especially when those people were trying to rescue the offspring of savages from poverty, disease, child abuse and illiteracy.
Actually, I think the aborigines owe the federal government an apology for unspeakable ingratitude, for being a pack of freeloaders and for being an all round embarrassment to the whole nation.
When I was a kid I believed all the sanitised aborigines-as-victims twaddle. Since then I've had direct contact with them more often than I'd like. When they weren't drunk, fighting or both they were stealing my boat. When they were finished playing with it they used it for firewood; I found the charred remains surrounded by metho and orange juice bottles, smashed stubbies and empty flagons.
What do you think of my chances for getting apology for that?
I have lots of pertinent stories. I do not believe that they constitute vilification since they are true. Some are hilarious and not one involves anything remotely resembling a noble savage. To be fair I have also met two that I liked. The trouble is you can't be friends with just one of them; tribal behaviour makes the rest think they can presume on your goodwill (ie take your stuff without asking) and they turn nasty when they find out otherwise.
The feds knew this, and they correctly determined that the kindest thing they could do for aborigines as individuals was to demolish their culture. That they tried to do so with adoption rather than shotguns is testament to their compassion and kindness, and certainly nothing requiring an apology.
So as far as I'm concerned it's I'm not sorry week.