IT’S the 21st anniversary of National Sorry Day this year, initiated in 1998 to remember the mistreatment of the country’s Aboriginal people, and Canberra’s indigenous community has assembled an informative exhibit to help the wider public understand the issues.

This exhibition, opened by Richard Weston of the Healing Foundation, has been installed in the newly refurbished Causeway Community Hall in Kingston, and shows previously unseen documents, including Sorry pledge books, reports, images, artefacts, and memorabilia. It  will include screenings of historical footage and documentaries.

It offers the opportunity to engage with members of the Stolen Generations, and seems especially relevant to school children who may be unaware of Australia’s history.

Curated by Helen Moran for Australia’s new Stolen Generations national body, Stolen Generations National Connections, the exhibition taps into a new groundswell of grassroots understanding  and empathy in the wider, non-Aboriginal community.

She is especially proud to display a personally signed copy of former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology to the Stolen Generations.

Moran says there is a chance to access historical knowledge, and information about the “Bringing them home” Report, the significance and connection of the report to the “Aboriginal Deaths in Custody” inquiry, the Stolen Generations, Sorry Day, the Sorry Day Movement, the Apology and the issue of a second wave of First Nations Children who are being removed today.

National Sorry Day History Exhibition, Causeway Community Hall, 14 Spinifex Street, Kingston, until July 31. July 29 smoking ceremony 5.30pm then film screening until 9pm, tomorrow, July 30, 6.30pm, different film screening  until 9pm, entry by gold coin donation at door.

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