Making meaning from collective apologies: Australia's apology to its indigenous peoples.

Abstract

This article considers the meaning of intergroup apologies for their recipients. Our research examined Indigenous people's responses to the 2008 Australian apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples forcibly removed from their families under previous governments (the Stolen Generations). We interviewed Indigenous men (n = 10) and women (n = 22) about their attitudes toward the apology and forgiveness. To cover the breadth of Indigenous responses to the Australian apology, we sought out participants from diverse geographic, cultural, and occupational contexts across Australia. After pooling the transcripts and entering them into NVivo, we identified key concepts and themes. Participants expressed positive, negative, and mixed views toward the apology and forgiveness. A dominant theme emerged as participants indicated that for the apology to be truly meaningful, there needed to be action commensurate with the emotion of the apology. Though participants indicated that the apology promoted reconciliation, this was not true for forgiveness. We conclude by discussing implications of these findings for theoretical models of intergroup apology.

A Critical Review of Official Public Apologies: Aims, Pitfalls, and a Staircase Model of Effectiveness

“…Mellor and colleagues note that forgiveness was not a topic that participants engaged with or discussed when thinking of the potential benefits of an apology. Follow‐up research conducted after the apology confirmed that it was the acknowledgment of history contained in the apology and the belief that this might lead to behavior change within the perpetrator group that contributed to the significance of the apology for Indigenous Australians (Philpot, Balvin, Mellor, & Bretherton, 2011).…”

Collective Apologies and Their Effects on Forgiveness: Pessimistic Evidence but Constructive Implications

“…Indigenous Australian perspectives on the apology and forgiveness show that the apology was not a panacea (Philpot, Balvin, Mellor, & Bretherton, 2013). The Australian apology to the Stolen Generations represents a clearer example of an intergroup apology.…”

Collective Apologies Are Good at Regulating Transgressors’ Emotions, But for Victim Group Members the Story Is Not So Clear

“…But the majority of experiments have revealed no effect of collective apologies on intergroup forgiveness (see Hornsey & Wohl, 2013, for a review). The sober conclusions have been reinforced by interview data with victims of intergroup atrocities: Official apologies are often welcomed, but the notion that there is a simple and immediate correspondence between the apology and forgiveness has not emerged (Chapman, 2007;Philpot, Balvin, Mellor, & Bretherton, 2013). The question is, Why would apologies "work" better in terms of promoting forgiveness at the interpersonal level than the collective level?…”