The power of sorry...

Recently the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, apologized for the "indignity and degradation" it caused to Aboriginals and specifically those of the stolen generation. Millions around the country joined the government in saying sorry to Aboriginals in a mass emotional outpouring. Aboriginals could be seen hand in hand with Australians as the government officially acknowledged Aboriginal history and pain. Yet, this apology by Prime Minister Rudd did not happen overnight.

JB, along with other members of the Australian National Sorry Day Committee worked persistently for ten years across Australia, within the grass roots and the parliament, before the government finally decided to make a formal apology to the Aboriginal people. But why did this apology, as shown in the video above, move millions of people to tears and mean so much to both the Aboriginal and Australian people?

Why was an apology so important? For decades, various International Relations scholars have minimized the importance of ideas in predicting the behavior of states, and yet ideas hold such a critical effect that they can never be ignored. For the Australian Aboriginals who had suffered immensely, acknowledgment of their pain and history was the first step in healing the wounded memories from decades gone past. Shortly after Australia made its apology, Canada followed by issuing a similar apology.

I was very moved by this Caux presentation from the Initiatives of Change Australia team, who did a tremendous amount of work to make the idea of a National Sorry Day become a reality. Yet, I wondered about the significance of saying sorry. What effect would saying such a simple word have on my life? One of the Australians who spoke mentioned that before he could work toward an official apology from the Australian government, he first had to make amends with his own brother. One of the philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi that has been adopted by Initiatives of Change is to “be the change that you see in the world.” Gandhi emphasized the importance of personal change before social change. Yet how did this affect me?

I began wondering about the power of apology in my own life. Like many of us, I have made several mistakes in life. Making mistakes seem to be a natural part of life. The true strength, according to JB, is in first recognizing our mistakes and then having the strength to apologize for them. Forgiveness and reconciliation are keys to change. When we hold on to wounded memories, we burden ourselves with emotional baggage. JB mentioned that our bitterness ends up affecting us more than it affects the other person.

For years I have been carrying around a burden with me in my own life and it has negatively affected my present and past situation. So maybe the time has finally come: for me to apologize, put my pride away, and say, “I’m only human, I made a mistake and I’m sorry.” Easier said than done, but I know that if I find the strength to apologize, it will set me free.

My first step lay in recognizing that I am no more perfect or imperfect than anyone else and that each of us makes mistakes. Our strength comes from having the ability to recognize our mistakes and making amends for them. For in the sight of God no one is perfect.

I made a list of all the people I wanted to apologize to and I’m going to say I’m sorry. For if the Australian government could apologize for the way it treated an entire generation of people, who am I not to say sorry?