Australia commemorates apology, one year on

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Updated February 12, 2009 22:11:20

It was an intensely emotional moment in the life of Australia when, a year ago Friday, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rose in Parliament and said sorry to the Stolen Generations. They are the Aboriginal children taken from their families under government policies that lasted from the late 1800s until the late 1960s and even into the 1970s in some places.

They were forced removals ... cutting children off from family, history and land ... and it led to grave abuses of Indigenous children which continue to scar their communities.

So after years of suffering, tears flowed freely when Kevin Rudd rose to his feet on February 13, 2008 and apologised.

So one year on, what has it meant?

Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speaker: Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister; Lorna Cubillo, Aboriginal campaigner; Tom Calma, Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner; Barbara Shaw, Aboriginal elder

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