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Saying sorry makes it easier for Australia to forget about their Government's Northern Territory military intervention, a visiting academic says.
And indigenous people who question Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's continuing the previous Administration's policy which aimed to deal with widespread sexual abuse of children in Aboriginal communities are increasingly being "demonised", Dr Irene Watson believes.
From the Tanganekald and Meintangk peoples Dr Watson has studied widescale violence in Aboriginal life, and the contribution women could make to address violence.
While Mr Rudd had apologised to "stolen generation" Aborigines, many of whom had embraced the gesture, it had allowed what was happening now to fall from people's consciousness, she said. "There was a certain symbolism in saying sorry, it was a very emotional event, but it's empty. I think it legitimises many things, including the intervention.
"No one is talking about it any more. Rudd gets the thumbs up [to continue] the intervention."
While the intervention had been sold as human rights issue, fundamental indigenous rights were being eroded at the same time, she said.
"What are they doing?
"They're changing the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, they're reducing lands rights, they're changing the [lands entry] permit system."
She said Aboriginal communities were "stereotypically" seen as "inherently violent", which allowed the belief that violence was strictly an Aboriginal problem, but that view lacked any recognition of more than 200 years of colonialism and the impact the process had on the country's original inhabitants.
Many leaders were unwilling to speak up when there was millions of dollars at stake to provide access for their people to health and housing initiatives, Dr Watson said.
"Women that do are completely demonised. But we shouldn't have to trade for services we have a right to."
Australia's federal Government would soon review the intervention but discourse was needed to change to include Aborigines finding their own solutions.
Dr Watson yesterday addressed a Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga (Maori Centre of Research Excellence) conference which is focusing on conflict resolution and paths to balanced relationships between indigenous peoples and other groups.
