The didgeridoo took precedence over the mace yesterday when Aboriginal customs melded with British political tradition on the eve of Australia’s apology to the “stolen generations”.

For the first time, the opening of the new Parliament in Canberra was a showcase of racial reconciliation, with the traditional owners of the land on which the capital was built dancing in white body paint and filling the halls with the sound of the didgeridoo.

Matilda House-Williams, an elder of the Ngambri-Ngunnawal people, wore a coat of animal skins as she delivered a traditional message stick to Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, to mark the first sitting since his Labor Party won power last November.

The traditional Welcome to Country ceremony set the mood for Mr Rudd to apologise for past assimilation policies, in which up to eight generations of Aboriginal children were taken from their families and brought up in white households. “Welcome to Country honours our people and pays respect to the spirits of the land,” Ms House-Williams said. “I ask the spirits to welcome the people here.”

In Parliament this morning Mr Rudd said sorry three times for the “profound grief, suffering and loss” of those affected by the policies.

A landmark report in 1997 found that between one in three and one in ten Aboriginal children were removed from their families between 1910 and 1970, and recommended a government apology. The former conservative Government, led by John Howard, offered only a statement of regret as it rejected the notion that present generations should be held responsible for past actions. The apology is made on behalf not of the Australian people, but Parliament.

“For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants, we say sorry,” the Prime Minister said. “To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people, we say sorry.”

The apology, which has bipartisan support, was debated in Parliament in front of 100 Aboriginal leaders and members of the “stolen generations”. Australia does not have any Aboriginal senators or MPs.

Mr Rudd, backed by Brendan Nelson, the Leader of the Opposition, said he hoped that the unprecedented welcoming ceremony would become a permanent tradition. “It’s taken 41 parliaments to get here,” Mr Rudd said. “We can be a bit slow sometimes. But we got here. And when it comes to the parliaments of the future, this will become part and parcel of the fabric of our celebration of Australia.”

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