However, to explain why, I need to take you back a bit and in so doing I’ll poke some holes in the ‘anti-sorry’ arguments.

My forefathers came to this land from England and Wales between the 1840’s and 1910’s. They came in search of opportunities to thrive and a better life for their children. In fact, my great-grandfather was born on the gold fields at Ballarat. Over the years they married and had children and moved around and their children got married and had children and moved around. They wore the uniforms of the colony of New South Wales and later the uniform of the young Commonwealth. They built homes and started businesses and worked hard to build lives. They also sent people to represent them in the seats of government. 

While all of this was going on, the people who once lived at Ballarat, in Newcastle, in what is now the Sunshine Coast, were pushed off their land. If they were lucky, they fled with their lives. If they were unlucky, like the poor souls at Myall Creek, they were simply disposed of. People. Not animals, not plants, but people who lived and breathed, laughed and loved, shared a meal around the fire and wanted the best for their children.

We stole this land from the first Australians. There’s no other way to put it that doesn’t seek to remove our guilt.

To those people who say they didn’t commit these acts, why should they be sorry, there’s a simple reply: have you or your family benefited in any way from the proceeds of these crimes? Mine sure did. Great-great-granddad Jones pulled gold out of dirt he had no business being on and he sold it to a man for a handful of paper and coins. 

So yeah, I didn’t commit these acts any more than anyone else alive did, but we’re still seeing the benefits today. Meanwhile, the damage caused to a multitude of nations, the destruction of cultures and languages, caused scars that still remain.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry for their loss. I’m sorry for what happened, not because I’m directly responsible, but because it’s painful and we can never truly make it right. However, we have to at least try, if only by starting with one word.

-STEPHEN MUDD