Who we are

Good to read the sane voice of Richard Flanagan (An invitation to the future) regarding the stolen generation ("some hundred thousand indigenous children were taken from their families and tribes - often forcibly - and raised in institutions and foster families where they would pointedly not be allowed their language or culture")

Earlier today I came across a nice line in The Subtlety of Emotions by Aaron Ben Ze'ev. This purported quote from an Aborginal elder may be a Chief Seattle moment -- that is, a bogus Western forgery of recent origin that speaks to our own sentimentality rather than indigenous reality -- but I'll quote it anyway:

You white people are so strange. We think it very primitive for a child to have only two parents.

[Kevin Rudd's sorry speech is here]

P.S. 24 Feb: Teo Kermeliotis takes issue here.