Sorry and Beyond

Brian Butler’s grandmother was taken from her family in 1910. She was 12 years old. Twenty years later her daughter, Brian’s mother, was taken.

Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, like Brian Butler’s, have been coping with the trauma of child removal for more than a century. Sorry and Beyond describes the growth of the grassroots movement that exposed the truth about Australia’s shameful removal policies and worked towards justice.

Born in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the movement was joined by nearly a million non-Indigenous Australians in the 1998 Sorry Day and Journey of Healing campaigns, which paved the way for the Federal Parliament’s unanimous apology in 2008.

As the Journey of Healing campaign has shown, community initiatives have played a vital part in overcoming the immense damage done.

The journey isn’t over. Sorry and Beyond is a call to continue the work of healing this national trauma.