Oh Happy Day: Aborigines open Canberra session

[malaise]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7240382.stm

<snip>
Australia's parliament has opened with an Aboriginal welcome, ahead of an apology for past wrongs inflicted on the country's indigenous community.

In a special ceremony, an Aboriginal elder handed a symbolic message stick to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

On Wednesday Mr Rudd is due to deliver a historic apology to Aborigines for past assimilation policies.

Under these policies, in place until the 1960s, thousands of children were forcibly taken from their families.
----------------
Thank you Kevin Rudd

[SpiralHawk]

1. Mayan elder don Alejandro Perez spoke at Guatemala inauguration last month

And gave the new president Colom a traditional staff...

A few people, at last, at last, are listening to the indigenous elders


do Alejandro: "We the Indigenous People join together in defense of the life of the human species, in defense of the life of our brother animals and the trees and in defense of the life of Mother Earth, because the life of the Planet Earth is in danger. We all know that what is happening in the world now is not a coincidence..."

(snip...)
http://www.commonpassion.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74&Itemid=80

[malaise]

2. Change is taking place slowly

This makes me feel very good.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Thanks for your OP, malaise

Reading your OP lifted me transmalaise and set me down on the Beauty Road again...

[malaise]

5. Thanks for that beautiful pix

:D

[malaise]

13. Here's the apology

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/apology/

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200802/r223749_884066.asx


The crowd at Federation Square, Melbourne, turns its back on Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson as he delivers his reply after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said sorry to Indigenous Australians in Federal Parliament, Canberra, on February 13, 2008.


Aboriginal activists march in Canberra

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7241980.stm

[SpiralHawk]

4. Undoing the karmic knot

Here learn of yet another effort -- a great prayer walk that has just started in the West and will cross Turtle Island (North America) walking Eastward toward the morning sun on two parallel trails, reaching Washington DC on July 11, 2008.

Take a step...The Longest Walk II - 2008: http://www.sacredrun.org/

[malaise]

7. And tomorrow Rudd

will apologize for kidnapping so many Aboriginal children for so long.
There is hope. Maybe this malaise will end one day.

[Beaverhausen]

6. I visited Australia in October

I'm so glad Australia is finally apologizing for the horrible treatment the aboriginies suffered.

[SpiralHawk]

8. A step in the right direction

Rising Sun at Uluru (Ayer's Rock).

[Beaverhausen]

9. two of my Uluru pics

one of cave paintings, the other the sunrise (on a very cloudy morning)

[Beaverhausen]

10. one more

me on the Mala Walk



When we were there, we attending a "dot painting" workshop - taught by a wonderful aboriginal woman named Bonnie.

[malaise]

12. Thanks for those

Lovely. :D

[malaise]

14. Aborigine thoughts on 'sorry' day

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7241954.stm.
<snip>
ARCHIE ROACH
I do remember a few things. They came in cars, with police.

I remember a lot of children, a lot of sobbing, but really quietly.

At about 11 years of age, I was coming back with one of my friends after he'd visited our place - there were no other Aboriginal children around - and he looked at me and said, 'Archie, how come your parents are white?'.

RUBY HUNTER
They told my grandmother that they were going to be taking us to the circus.

The day they came, they came with balloons, some lollies and a brown parcel. At first we said we didn't want to go to the circus - I didn't even know what a circus was anyway.

I remember a black car pulling up, and a lady and a man came out the door. It was the first time I had seen a car - it was a like a big monster, and the door was like a mouth. We jumped in this big monster. We were crying.

We never ended up in a circus - we ended up in a police station. I remember the bars.

[malaise]

11. That's beautiful

WOW!