Dear Gran,
this morning we jumped on our bikes almost as soon as we woke up. As we cycled down northbourne avenue, we saw other friends on bikes too. At a red light, the passenger in the car full of people next to us wound down the window and asked "Which way to Parliament House?" "Straight ahead--- you can follow us!" I replied.
It felt like all Canberra--- and even more people from across the country--- was going to see the apology. The lawn in front of Parliament House was full of people, come to look at the big screen. People waving flags--- the Australian one, the Aboriginal one, and the (lesser known) Torres Strait Islander one. (I joked that it would be one of the few times we'd be encouraging Ruthie to wave the flag).
On the screen we could see members of parliament filing into the green chamber. The Speaker declared the session open, said "First item of Government business" and then Kevin was on.
I found his speech really moving; especially when he said that his apology was "not qualified"--- after all the years of hedging, legalisms and so on. People in the crowd were clapping, crying, hugging, but mostly listening silently. I think almost half the crowd would have been indigenous; the rest of us ordinary Canberrans, schoolkids in their uniforms, mums and dads, public servants all suited up for a day in the office. After Kevin Rudd announced that he would be coopting the Opposition leader to be part of bipartisan taskforce, the camera switched to Brendan Nelson's face--- with a look of sort of wooden horror on it. That got a laugh.
After he finished the Speaker said "Righto" (he must be new in the job!) and moved on to the reply. After that people started drifting away, off to work, started talking. I listened until I realised that Nelson really wasn't into the "unqualified" thing; it seemed mean-spirited. Some people booed him. We walked over to the side, among the gum trees, to eat a little breakfast-picnic.
On the one hand, the apology was a totally straight-forward simple decent thing to do; to acknowledge that people had suffered as a result of government policies. But it is a sad thing that something so obvious felt so special, so amazing: we have become used to the denial and ungracefulness of the last decade.
Here is a photo (that someone
else took):
On Monday, Ruth, Sean, Sam and I went up there to help put up this candle sculpture:
It says "sorry, the first step".
all in all, today was a good day, one long overdue.
Hope you're well,
Julie.
There were balloons, clowns and popcorn waiting for us in the foyer - no wonder Rohan enjoys going to work!
Panoramic views over the city from the ninth floor (Momo can see his house from here!)
'That's my trailer!' exclaims Ruth as she saw our bikes eight storeys below.
I thought it was pretty good, but Julie later complained that someone was rather overdoing the baseline.
Later on, delicious scones were made by Julie, Oscar and the two penguin girls.
