https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147345/apologies

Apologies

BY KARENNE WOOD

I.
The time has come for the nation to turn
a new page by righting wrongs of the past.

We apologise for laws and policies that inflicted
profound grief, suffering, and loss and for the removal
of children from families, communities, and country.

For the pain of these, their descendants, and for families
left behind, to mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters,
for indignity inflicted on a proud people, we say sorry.

We resolve that the injustices of the past must never,
never happen again and look to a future based on mutual
respect, where all, whatever their origins, are equal partners.

Spoken by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd,
introduced in January and delivered November 29, 2008,
the day after he was sworn into office