Deliberation and Past Injustice: Recognition and the Reasonableness of Apology in the Australian Case

Abstract

Debate over the historical mistreatment of its indigenous Aboriginal people emerged during the late 1990s as one of the dominant features of public discourse in Australia. Such public attention to issues of indigenous race relations was unprecedented – mainstream ignorance about the history and experience of indigenous peoples since European settlement had been widespread in Australia through most of the twentieth century. In 1991, however, the Labor government of Prime MinisterKeating launched a state-sponsored public conversation aimed at reaching reconciliation and reducing inequalities between the majority white community and indigenous Aboriginal Australians. That conversation continued to gather momentum through the 1990s, culminating in revelations, published in 1997, of forced child removal and the attempted destruction of Aboriginal communities and culture. The reconciliation process achieved considerable success in raising public consciousness of the past sufferings of indigenous peoples, and their present concerns. As many critics have concluded, however, it has ultimately failed both to symbolically reconcile indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, and to bring about major policy changes improving the material conditions of Aboriginal peoples.