Imagining responsibility : who are 'we' anyway?

In May 1997, one of the defining texts of the contemporary Australian social and political landscape, the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples was tabled in the Australian parliament. The inquiry documented around 1500 stories of the forced removal of Aboriginal children and fifty-four recommendations were made. Many of these concern socio-Iegal reforms, welfare programmes, and archival and memorial practices. However, the most publicized and controversial recommendation is: 'That all Australian parliaments ,.. officially acknowledge the responsibility of their predecessors for the laws, policies and practices of forced removal' (cited in Bird, 1998, p. 167). The report further recommends that appropriate apologies be made after negotiating the wording with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, and also that 'appropriate reparation' be made. In this article, the issue of collective identity in the face of collective responsibility is addressed and the notions of an "ethico-political imagination," are introduced.