Embedding the Apology in the Nation's Identity

Abstract

Both Australia and New Zealand have been marked by powerful claims for reparation for wrongs committed against indigenous peoples, with the responses to these claims including apologies. The trajectories of these responses have differed, however, particularly with respect to the relative role of formal institutional recognition and social movements. This paper argues that the institutionalisation of Crown apologies to New Zealand Māori has led to a certain alienation of these apologies from broader Pākehā society, whereas the failure to institutionalise recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights in Australia has more deeply engaged questions of national identity for Australia as a whole. This comparative finding is consistent with a complex understanding of the relationship between political opportunity structures and social movements, whereby 'a mix of open and closed structures' (Eisinger 1983: 15) is most conducive to social movements.