“I wish to offer a heartfelt and unreserved apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on behalf of the Religious Orders of sisters, brothers and priests of Australia. We are sorry for the pain you have suffered because of the forced separation of your children which took place over many decades. We are deeply sorry for any pain that you and your children have felt by being placed in our Catholic institutions. In the light of the National Inquiry Report, we are beginning to understand some of the devastating effects that government policy had on your lives and the part we played in implementing these policies. Children suffered the shocking experience of losing their present and their past - they lost their parents, families, their language, spirituality, land and identity. In having their children taken from them, Indigenous communities were deprived of their future and their hope.

We undertake to offer help where possible for people to trace their records, so that they may recover their identity and hopefully find their way home again.

We commit ourselves to be part of the national process of reconciliation in dialogue with you. We know an apology cannot undo past sufferings. We want to be part of healing the deep wound which affected Australia because of past practices. We pray that, walking together, we can find a new way forward in this land we call home.

APOLOGY TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
FROM RELIGIOUS ORDERS OF AUSTRALIA
June 11, 1997”