Kevin Rudd Sorry Speech Analysis

Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister at the time) made an apology to the “Stolen Generation” from the Parliament House, Canberra, 2008. The “Stolen Generation” were the children of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, under the acts of their respective Parliaments. Kevin Rudd’s aim was to inform the Indigenous community of the Australian Governments ‘wrong doings’ to their people of the past. Kevin Rudd informed the Aboriginal community and the Parliament of his intentions to equalise the opportunities for all, no matter of the colour of their skin. Kevin Rudd utilises phonetic structures such as emphatic stress when speaks about the future of Australians. When he says “A future where we can harness the determination of all Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.”

Rudd emphases the “all” so the indigenous communities feel like they are included within the Australian nation. Rudd also uses repetition, when he mentions all of the apologies on behalf of Australia, “We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.” Rudd continuously says “we apologise” so he makes sure his message is successfully conveyed. The reason why I chose the Kevin Rudd’s Apology Speech was because the “Stolen Generation” was a dark part in Australia’s history, Rudd’s speech was a very important but long overdue apology to the members of the Stolen Generations and their families. I am glad that it was made, and I felt quite moved analysing it. However it does not go far enough. The speech didn’t bring the children home to their families and a whole part of the generation are not alive. The speech should have happened years ago but it was an extremely moving apology.