National Apology Day 

 The Australian Parliament’s Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples was a very significant event that ‘stopped the nation’.  All over Australia, people stopped to watch the Apology on television, including in schools.  On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Australia’s Stolen Generations, those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had been removed as children from their families and their culture. Although the apology could not take away the pain of the past, many felt that it was a necessary first step in the healing process.  As a FIRE carrier community at St John's we acknowledge this historical moment to further 'embrace the spirit of reconciliation, as we move towards a place of justice and partnership, so that together, we can walk gently on this land'. (Acknowledgement of Country - St John's FIRE carrier's version)

An extract from the Apology motion, 13 February 2008 is can be viewed on the wall in the school foyer -  

“We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

 For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. 

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. 

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. 

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation… 

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.” 

                                               - Honourable Kevin Rudd MP