Broadcast of Kevin Rudd's formal apology to the Stolen Generations at Redfern Community Centre, 13 February 2008 (photograph by Wendy McDougall, courtesy State Library of NSW and National Library of Australia)
On 13 February 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a formal apology to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with specific reference to the Stolen Generations, at Parliament House in Canberra. Hundreds of Sydneysiders gathered at Redfern Community Centre to watch the live telecast of Kevin Rudd’s apology.
On the day of the apology address to the Stolen Generations, staff from the City’s History Team recorded oral histories and took photographs of members of the celebratory crowd at Redfern Community Centre. This video, which includes the oral history testimony and images, was produced by the City of Sydney’s History Team in 2009.
The National Apology to the Stolen Generations was added to the National Sound and Film Archive’s Sounds of Australia in 2021.
Find out more
Apology to The Stolen Generations, Hon Kevin Rudd AC, 26th Prime Minister of Australia (audio recording)
Australian Parliament House website, Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples, https://www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament/Art/Exhibitions/Custom_Media/Apology_to_Australias_Indigenous_Peoples, viewed 04 February 2022
Wendy McDougall, Crowd watching Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on a big screen television in the grounds of the Redfern Community Centre during the live broadcast from Canberra of the Apology to the Stolen Generations, Sydney, 13 February 2008, https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-137386424
Wendy McDougall, Sorry Day ceremony, Redfern Community Centre, 13 February 2008, State Library of NSW, a2283 Online, https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n88EM6Bn
‘We say sorry: 10 years since the apology to the Stolen Generations’, State Library of NSW blog, 13 February 2018, https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/blogs/we-say-sorry-10-years-apology-stolen-generations
