Article by Luca Ittimani for The Guardian, 24 May.
Victoria’s Police Commissioner has apologised for the role the force played in the stolen generations over more than 100 years.
Shane Patton delivered what he described as a “long overdue” apology in the presence of survivors of the stolen generations, their children and other members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Melbourne on Friday.
The apology is part of a series of commitments Victoria police made after its appearance at the state’s truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, last year. You can view Patton’s full speech here.
Ian Hamm, a Yorta Yorta man and child of the stolen generations, said he “never thought” police would apologise and urged Patton, who critics have labelled “woke”, to embrace the term as a “badge of honour of doing what needed to be done”.