‘It’s everyone’s business’: National Sorry Day at Monash Park

By Caitlyn Grant

May 26, 2022

National Sorry Day: Aunty Ella Anselmi spoke at the commemoration event. Photo by Megan Fisher

Aunty Ella Anselmi was only a child when her two brothers were forcibly taken from her family at The Flats along the Goulburn River.

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She spent years crying for them, finding out later on reunion they too were crying for their family, for a life that was taken from them.

“Every time a black car came down to The Flats, my mother and other mothers would say ‘quick, grab your kids’,” she said.

Solemn: A minute of silence and a flag-raising took place. Photo by Megan Fisher

“They got my two young brothers and they took them up to Kempsey homes, and it just makes me so angry — what gives them the right to say that my brothers were better off in the Kempsey homes than with us in the bush?”

Speaking at the National Sorry Day event at Monash Park, Ms Anselmi said her brothers returned from the home different people, having been raised in a life fraught with mistreatment.

Symbolic: Handmade art lines the ceremony. Photo by Megan Fisher

“Those people come down and got those Aboriginal kids, took them, and reckon they could give them a better life — no way,” she said.

Ms Anselmi’s story and that of her brothers is harrowing, but not isolated.

Commemoration: Attendees hold a handmade banner. Photo by Megan Fisher

National Sorry Day marks 25 years since the tabling of the Bring Them Home report, compiling the findings of an inquiry into the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Crowd: People gather in the rain and cold weather. Photo by Megan Fisher

The day of commemoration is the result of one of 54 recommendations made from the report, one of few that have been implemented.

Despite the drizzle, the commemorative event saw a crowd of more than 100 gather.

Reconciliation: Aunty Pam Pederson. Photo by Megan Fisher

Michael Bourke gave a Welcome to Country, while Nathan Bourke and students from Academy of Sport, Health and Education performed a smoking ceremony.

Students from schools across the region made up the crowd, with representatives speaking across the program about Sorry Day and reconciliation as a whole, and introducing guest speaker Ms Anselmi.

Embrace: City of Greater Shepparton Deputy Mayor Anthony Brophy. Photo by Megan Fisher

When asked if Sorry Day and the attempts at reconciliation made a difference, Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group co-convenor Bobby Nicholls likened it to receiving a wound.

“If you catch your finger or you stub your toe it bleeds, and that when I say bleeding, that's the families that are mourning and crying for their young children,” he said.

Welcome to Country: Michael Bourke spoke at the event. Photo by Megan Fisher

“Stubbing your toe or cutting your finger, there will be a scar left but also that scar sometimes heals — in saying that, yes, some people hearing sorry from Kevin Rudd has gone a long way, but people are still scarred.

Speaking: Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group co-convenor Bobby Nicholls. Photo by Megan Fisher

“And those stories have been handed down from our elders like Aunty Ella just made in her statement, and we will continue to advocate that to non-Aboriginal people and to people who are migrating into the Goulburn Valley area and to the students.