Bridging the past, present and future: Transgenerational collective guilt and responsibility in Australian politics of reconciliation

Abstract

This paper examines theories of collective guilt and collective responsibility for past injustice, emerging from post-war Germany, and analyses how these theories have been engaged with through political apology by settler Australian politicians within the politics of reconciliation. Australia is a settler society, whose history and national identity has been built upon the foundations of the dispossession and oppression of Indigenous Australians. This paper analyses how this historic injustice has been viewed through a lens of collective guilt by settler Australian politicians, which insinuates Australian settler society are to blame for this historic mistreatment, which in turn, creates a barrier to reconciliation. This paper argues that instead that this history be framed through a collective responsibility approach, as demonstrated in the official apology given to the Stolen Generations in 2008, which entails a connection to the past which does not encompass blame but has restorative and forward-looking connotations. A collective responsibility approach encourages the acceptance of the past and promotes collective action to end the enduring injustice, allowing for the necessary political change needed for reconciliation.