Sorry Day is both a day to be celebrated and a day to reflect on the mistakes of the past, Orange Deputy Mayor Gerald Power told the crowd at National Sorry Day Commemorations in Orange on Friday, May 26.

Braving bitterly cold and damp weather, a large crowd gathered outside the Orange Civic Centre in Byng Street on Friday for the local commemoration service, which marked the anniversary of the ‘Bringing Them Home’ report being tabled in federal parliament.

The report, tabled in 1997, revealed the extent of forced removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families – now known as ‘The Stolen Generations’.

Following the raising of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags outside the Civic Centre, the Commemoration Service was relocated out of the elements, inside the Civic Theatre foyer.

“The ‘Bringing Them Home’ report actually tabulates the impact on First Nation people, that are even here present today, that are even here present at this point of time around Australia,” Cr Power said to the crowd inside. 

“So today is a significant day: We celebrate that there is a Sorry Day, but at the same time, reflect on the trauma that has been caused.”

Cr Power said he still can’t believe it was so difficult for our political leaders to say ‘sorry’, to admit mistakes had been made in the past.

And he reminded the crowd that just as actions in the past affect us today, our actions today will also affect those in the future.

“We need to understand our decisions now affect these little ones,” he said. “So, we must be careful. We must tread lightly, with our words and our actions and our deeds and especially with policies…”

Following Cr Powell at the podium, Uncle Les Powell said reconciliation has still got a long way to go, citing the disproportionately high incarceration rate of Indigenous Australians as just one example.

“There's something wrong with that picture,” Uncle Les said. “So when we look at our community, that's got to change — and those things we've got to change, we can only do it by walking together, loving one another, respecting one another.”

To make real change for the future, we can’t stay focused on the past, Uncle Les said, but rather look at what each of us can change here in the present.

“What do I change today, will determine my future,” he said. “So yes, we need to bring people to account. Yes, we need to remember what's happened, but at the end of the day we need to live in the present… knowing that today is a day that I can create change, knowing today is a day I can shake somebody’s hand, knowing if I've got unforgiveness or bitterness towards anybody I can walk up and say, ‘Brother, forgive me’.

“That's true reconciliation. True reconciliation starts within. It starts with us.”