Adelaide Sorry Day commemoration

Adelaide Sorry Day commemoration

By Bronwen Beechey

ADELAIDE — Around 500 people gathered on May 26 for a "Journey of Healing" to mark the first anniversary of Sorry Day and the second anniversary of Bringing Them Home, the report on the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

The event began at the Old Adelaide Gaol, where many Aboriginal people were imprisoned and several were hung to death. After a welcome by Kaurna elders Josie Agius and Veronica Brodie, participants walked to a site near the Torrens River reserved by Governor Gawler as a camp for Kaurna people shortly after Adelaide was founded in 1836.

The next stop was the site of the first indigenous school in South Australia, run by German missionaries who taught Kaurna children in their own language. In 1845, Governor Grey closed the school, ordered the destruction of Kaurna dwellings and relocated the children to an English-speaking school. The children were separated from their families and Grey forbade the missionaries from teaching or preaching in Kaurna.

The journey ended at Victoria Square, an ancient Kangaroo Dreaming site for Kaurna people. Kaurna spokesperson Georgina Williams appealed for support from non-indigenous people for indigenous struggles. "We are looking down the barrel of our own extinction", she said. "We cannot afford any further losses. We have no more ground to give."

From GLW issue 363