Comments on: Preparing for “Sorry”

By: Mr V

Mr V — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:10:18 +0000

Good thought on the earlier preparation. Technology, like sheep, has a habit of dying in the most ridiculous, inappropriate and annoying ways possible just when you haven’t the time to properly deal with them.

As for the ‘where were you when’ issue… I don’t think anybody at our school actually watched it. In fact, none of the kids even mentioned it, and the first I heard it mentioned was during lunchtime when a few said ‘oh, that’s happening today’.

Fairly low key here, although we did fly the Aboriginal flag in place of the state one alongside the national flag today. I thought that was a fair enough gesture.

I only just now read a copy of the document on another blog, and as I said there, it’s as full of rhetoric and fancy filler as I expected, but it’s a much more evenly balanced document than I was expecting. I dip my lid to those who eventually drafted this version.

While I was fairly cynical about the issue (although I love the Aboriginal culture and recognise that wrongs were performed in the past but mostly by generally well meaning people), I have to admit that the document I read does fill me with more optimism about the issue now.

I’ll have to see whether any of the kids realise what’s happened by tomorrow.

By: An Apology a Long Time Coming: Australia Says Sorry. | The Cerebral Mum

An Apology a Long Time Coming: Australia Says Sorry. | The Cerebral Mum — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:03:37 +0000

[...] Booked Inn: Preparing For Sorry [...]

By: cerebralmum

cerebralmum — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:50:48 +0000

Ian, thanks for letting me know about this post. It’s great to see that so much effort was put in to giving this event the attention it deserved (I think) in our schools. Education on this issue has obviously come a long way since I was a student. For which I am mighty grateful.

By: ianmclean

ianmclean — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:23:23 +0000

The session at 9am this morning went off relatively successfully. We were very glad we had done all that exploratory work yesterday afternoon, and especially relieved that we also had a radio on hand, tuned to the ABC. At one point, the sound level of the live streaming video was too soft for an assembly hall full of students, and there seemed to be an increasing time delay between the radio broadcast and the streaming video.

The live feed dropped out twice but was quickly reactivated. We imagine that a lot of people the world over were tapping into it.

The students seemed to be very aware that something significant was happening and, no doubt, each class would have had some debriefing afterwards.

As I said, it was definitely a “Where were you when…?” moment, and so long overdue. Thank goodness it was watched (and listened to) by more people than Pauline Hansen’s maiden speech all those years ago – which was probably the last Parliamentary speech to garner so much interest.