We acknowledge that as indigenous Australians you have not only been dispossessed of your spiritual home, the land which you acknowledge as your Mother, but have been taken from your parents and have been forbidden your language, songs, dances and spiritual life which have been yours through countless thousands of years.
We realise that everything we have, or
have accomplished here, has been at your
expense and through your dispossession.
We are deeply saddened that almost half
of the indigenous Australians who died
in custody and whose deaths were investigated
by the Black Deaths Royal
Commission had been removed from their
families as children.
We believe that an apology is owed to those
of our fellow citizens who were
separated from their families as a direct
result of government policy.
For all these acts of ignorance, discrimination
and racist attitudes, we who
are newcomers to your country unreservedly
apologise to you.
We are deeply sorry that we and other people
who have entered your land have
committed such deeds and continue to profit
from them.
Gay
& Lesbian Welfare Association
This statement has been published in the
February edition of TOTO.
Members were invited to comment on the
statement and make those comments known to either Co-convenor.