More than 100,000 Aborigine children were abducted from their parents and placed in Australian orphanages and foster homes in a century-long campaign to assimilate them into European culture. Now new Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd will apologize for the abductions, carried out between 1869 and 1969, reports the Times of London. The policy inspired the movie, Rabbit-Proof Fence, which details two sisters' heart-breaking flight from their remote orphanage.
The apology will be made February 13 in parliament. “It’s building a bridge of respect, which I think has been in some state of disrepair in recent decades,” Rudd said. Some Aborigine groups say the apology doesn't go far enough and should be broadened to include other inhumane treatment of indigenous Australians.