Emilia TOMESCU (1)
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
Iuliana NEAGOȘ (2)
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
| Abstract: | Genocide can take many forms and be justified in many different ways. The cultural genocide that was intended to annihilate the identity of the Aboriginal people in Australia during the 20th century was based on the assumption that these people were visibly “inferior” to those who colonized Australia and thus, had to be “civilized”. It was a process of internal colonialism present in other parts of the world, too, and its intention was to assimilate the ethnic groups of Aboriginal people and integrate them by educating their children by force, in the schools of the white people.
To admit the wrongs done, and the injustice of governmental programmes was not an easy task but, in Australia, it happened in 2008 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a public speech, which took him a lot of courage, saying officially “sorry” for the “stolen generations; that were affected by the forced removal of children on racial grounds” made fully lawful by the authority. In his speech The Prime minister mentioned they could resolve together all the common problems while preserving the dignity of difference and trying to give Australia a new beginning, a new chapter in looking for a new kind of identity which should include “cultures that provide a unique uninterrupted human thread, linking the Australian Continent the one of the most ancient prehistory of our planet! |
| Keywords: | Genocide; internal colonialism; superiority of race; cultural identity; reconciliation; сourage |
| Contact details of the authors: | E-mail: emilia.tomescu@ulbsibiu.ro
iuliana.neagos@ulbsibiu.ro |
| Institutional affiliation of the authors: | Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Department of International Relations, Political Science and Security Studies |
| Institutions address: | 34 Calea Dumbrăvii, 0269422169, https://www.ulbsibiu.ro/en/, Sibiu, 550024, Romania |