To what extent do the formal reconciliation processes in South Africa and Australia compare?
Date
2009-11-10T11:59:55Z
Authors
Vermaak, Vanessa
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Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of the research has been to compare the reconciliation
processes in South Africa and Australia.
The research involves specific periods of human rights abuses in both
countries. Consideration is given to the role of state policies and institutions
which excluded indigenous people from participating in society. Equality,
human rights, and socio-economic disadvantage are defining elements of the
debate between the governments and the indigenous communities.
It is impossible to talk meaningfully about reconciliation - and the
transformation in relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous
people - without reference to human rights. Both the South African and
Australian processes were defined in terms of human rights. However, while
there was a commitment on paper to addressing past experiences in the two
official ‘truth telling’ mechanism introduced in both countries, the outcome of
the processes did not, either in South Africa or in Australia, lead to any
significant change in the unequal basis of the relationship between indigenous
and non-indigenous people. The ways in which the processes unfolded were
meant to offer more than a platform for memories to be recounted or for
history to be rewritten on the basis of new evidence, they were meant to offer
some kind of recompense that would lead to renewal and change. But neither
the process nor the outcome properly addressed the deep disempowerment
of indigenous people, and in many ways the process was disillusioning.
In studying the reconciliation processes in these two societies, an underlying
question presents itself: does truth really achieve reconciliation?