After The Apology

 

 
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
 
I wrote this last year, at the time of the 10th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. Another anniversary (13 February)  has just passed and it’s as relevant as it ever was.
 
Ann Davis
Alice Springs
 
 
 
AFTER THE APOLOGY
 
 
For the loudness of my words and the silence of my intent, I apologise.
For the clanging of my ego, the crash of my self-interest, I apologise.
For my sustained comfort that can’t feel your pain, I apologise.
For my diminished humanity that masquerades as concern, I apologise.
For my fear at what being sorry might look like, I apologise.
For the sense of superiority that holds up dominance, I’m sorry.
For the bastardised remnants of your cultural pride, I apologise.
For your endless search for self worth in the scrap heaps of our judgement,
I apologise.
For our benign, wishy-washy gestures, I ask forgiveness.
For the pressure to seek value by aping the colonizer, I feel shame.
To walk under the giant spam can of power, I cringe.
To live beside a tribute to the fallen that ignores the war you lost, I feel lesser.
For guilt, for not enough guilt, for sham, for shame, I’m ashamed.
For calling a political act an apology, an end that could have been a beginning,
I hang my head.
For going on and on like your endless pain…
… the facts remain.