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Kevin Rudd

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Kevin Rudd
On Wednesday, 13 February 2008, the Federal Parliament of Australia was filled with hundred of parliamentarians and the representatives of the Indigenous community. The 26th Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Michael Rudd who is an English - Irish man, astonishing and surprising the whole of Australian citizens by delivering a speech entitled ‘Sorry’. He received a standing ovation as he entered the hall before he delivered his remarkable speech. His speech is an official apology on behalf of the Australian government to the Aboriginals, but in particular it is directed to the stolen generation.

Between the year of 1910 and 1970, over 100.000 children were forcibly taken from their Aboriginal parents. They were either raised in foster families or adopted by white parents. Most of them were the children under the age of five and they are known as the Stolen Generation. They were taken from their own parents through the Australian government assimilation policies. Aboriginal people had no right to be entitled to any part of Australia, even though they had lived before the white people came which led to the result, they do not get their proper place in life. The aim of them doing so, is because Australian government doubted the skills of the Aboriginal parents in raising their kids well and highly educated. Forty years from now, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd admitted and explained about what happened. The stolen generation has been a cultural phenomenon and common thing to the Australian citizens back then. In the speech, Rudd specifically refers and mention to the stolen generation, which was aimed at thousand of aboriginal children who were forced to separate from their families and handed over to the Whites to be raised instead.

The strength of the speech is seen when Rudd was sincerely apologizing due to the misunderstanding that had been done previously by the Australian citizens. Indirectly, he also admitted the mistakes that had been done in the



References: Cockcroft, R & Cockcroft SM 2005, Persuading people: an introduction to rhetoric, 2nd edition, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire. Dlugan, A. 2010, ‘ what is Pathos and Why is it critical for speakers? ‘. Six minutes and presentation skills, viewed 4 October 2011, . Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M 1980, ‘Metaphors We Live By Chicago’, University of Chicago Press. Lewis, G, & Slade C 1994, ‘Critical Communication’, Language in Context, Sydney: Prentice Hall, pp.25-49. Rudd, K 2008, ‘ Apology to Australia’s indigenous peoples ‘, Wednesday 13 February 2008, Parliament of Australia, viewed 4 October 2011, Stiff, J. B 1994, ‘Persuasive communication’, New York: Guilford Press. Wood, JT 2009, Communication in Our Lives, Wadsworth, USA.

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