Compensating Indigenous Australians

I attended the John Saunders lecture where the wonderful Peter Adam spoke about the right and wrong of our nation's history and called on non-Aboriginal Australians to compensate Aboriginal Australians for the theft of their land. He's giving the talk again on the 5th October in Melbourne. I found it unsettling and compelling and left convinced . . . until I spoke to some very smart people who pointed out some problems with the whole thing. I have listed these issues below - and my resolution of them.


1. While I agree that both the Old and New Testaments talk about recompense, it is only mentioned sparingly, certainly in the NT. This made me wonder if it is not always applicable. The NT emphasis seems to be much more on forgiveness and unity between, for example, Jew and Gentile. I wondered if the biblical writers push this even in cases where speaking of recompense would have been relevant.

I think that the answer to this may be that, yes, compensation may not be required. But that does not take away from the fact that it may be very good and fitting.


2. I also wondered about the legitimacy of corporate guilt for non-covenantal people. Often when a people is seen as guilty, it is their covenantal unfaithfulness towards God that is in view.

The only exception I could think of to this is in the first chapters of Amos - but I have since had more pointed out to me, so I no longer think that this is a legitimate point.


3. There is a sense in which recompense on a corporate scale becomes ridiculous. Human history consists of layers of wrong done by one people to another. On what grounds should recompense be given to the Australian Aboriginal people and none given to the other peoples that my Anglo-Saxon ancestors conquered?

I think that while this is true, the taking of Aboriginal land is a clear and nationwide wrong done in recent history, and as such, it seems fitting that we should take responsibility for it, even if we forget other historical wrongs.


4. I think that if recompense of Aboriginal people is valid, then it only makes sense to do it on a national scale. I think it will be impossible for just recompense to be given on a local scale, with local churches/communities/councils etc giving recompense to local Aboriginal groups. An attempt to do local-level recompense will fail at a number of points. For example, should the Aboriginal people who are currently living there be recompensed, or should they be recompensed by the people from the place they were born? Should European people who live in an area with lots of Aboriginal people pay higher recompense? Should recent immigrants be excluded? The mix of these questions will be impossible to sort out with any accuracy and justice.

So I think that the best course of action would be for the Prime Minister to give a once-of, costly recompense on behalf of all Australians. I think that more symbolic action is the only thing that has legitimacy at this stage in our nation's history.

Another possible course of action that has been suggested to me is that heads of the various Christian denominations make recompense on behalf of the church. I think this would be a brilliant example of the church taking the lead.


5. On a related note, I think that, as well as a national apology, it would be profoundly beneficial for non-Aboriginal people to receive a national we-forgive-you from Aboriginal people. Otherwise we are left feeling perpetually guilty, which doesn't help our country move forward.

H/T Sophie, Dan and Jono