On the 13th February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples on behalf of the Parliament of Australia. The State Library of Queensland, with assistance from Queensland University of Technology and Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, has captured responses to this historic event. Patricia Lees (pictured) is one of them (video on this page):
Pattie Lees from Mount Isa. I’ve been here about 32 years. I’m considered a transplant, you know, you’ve got to actually be born here sometimes before you’re accepted but my original thing is on the coast. My mother’s a Torres Strait Islander, Murray Islander. My father’s an Irishman. So I’m just happy to, you know, be me I think.
I was actually invited to, down to Canberra, one of the hundreds. Rang up and said, “would you like to?” like that. And I declined, which was a bit of a shock to them and I said, “no I just want to offer solidarity with a lot of people I know that were similarly involved in that way.”
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We weren’t responsible for what happened back then but we are responsible for the future. And even just yesterday when I come home my little grand-daughter’s sitting on my lap. And she had a beautiful t-shirt on which made me really. She had a little t-shirt on said, “save the future for me.” Now isn’t that what it’s all about?
