HUM 221: Native cultures in the news

Australia's parliament opened today with an traditional Aboriginal welcome as "Didgeridoo-playing Aborigines overturned hundreds of years of British tradition by marking the official opening of the session in their own way." BBC News reports:

Aboriginal elder Matilda House, wearing a coat of animal skins, delivered a traditional message stick to [Prime Minister Kevin] Rudd, and spoke of "the hope of a united nation through reconciliation".

"Today we begin with one small step to set right the wrongs of the past," Mr Rudd said.

The first act of parliament will be to apologise to the Stolen Generations - young Aboriginal children taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed a motion to acknowledge the "profound grief, suffering and loss" as well as the "indignity and degradation" caused to the Aboriginal community by previous policies.

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

The motion is due to be put to a vote on Wednesday, and is certain to pass because it has the support of both the government and the main opposition parties.

The Aborigines are Australia's indigenous or native people, and at times their experience has paralleled that of American Indians. One has been the way indigenous children were adopted by to white families. Another is the dying out of native languages in Australia and North America.