It makes me wonder how recent events will be viewed in the future, such as the 2008 national apology delivered by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the 2007 Northern Territory intervention led by then Prime Minister John Howard. The former seems a bold step forward for our nation, recognising the failings of paternal policies for indigenous people; while the latter represents one of the most recent of those policies. I wonder if in a decade or two it will look like a turning-point in our national identity.
It's amazing that within one hundred years of policies like assimilation we're moving, as a country, from wiping out indigenous cultural identity to widely adopting it.
If you look at New Zealand you can see that Australia could've moved toward embracing aboriginal culture much earlier.
