It was a defining and a momentous day for the Australian nation. I shed tears of joy with so many others when Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, gave the most anticipated apology in the nation's history, an apology that removed "a great stain from the nation's soul that would help build a new bridge between indigenous and non-indigenous Australian".
On the eve of the apology, perhaps of greater significance, Federal Parliament was - for the first time - officially opened not by some dignitary from across the seas but by an aborigine. "Welcome to the land of my ancestors," said Ngambri elder, Mathilda House-Williams as the crowd, gathered at the Great Hall, erupted in applause. Draped in a fur cape, Ms House-Williams and her grandchildren then handed Mr Rudd a message stick - a traditional means of communications used by indigenous people for thousands of years.
In his apology, Mr Rudd said: "Today we honour the indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing culture in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were the Stolen Generation - the blemish chapter in our history.
The injustices of the past must never, never happen again. We apologise especially for the removal of aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders' children from their families, their communities and their country".
In 1997, Sir Ronald Wilson released his landmark report Bringing Them Home, which soberly chronicled the history of shame when thousands of children were forcibly removed from their families between 1910 and 1970.
It was part of the policy of assimilation being enforced at the time. A policy so inflexible, so dogmatic that also engulfed and suffocated migrants like me who came to this country in the early 1950s. We too were told to assimilate, to forget our past and become instant Australian. We were not removed from our families but, no doubt, attempts were made to remove us from our cultures. It was indeed forced assimilation.
In time and after much pain and suffering the policy of assimilation was thrown out and replaced by the less intrusive policy of integration that has since built a mighty multicultural nation.
Four former Prime Ministers lined up at Parliament House to watch their successor make the apology they had not given. One was missing. John W Howard, the Prime Minister who also lost his seat at the last election and has refused to apologise for the last 11 years, was conspicuous by his absence.
Present were Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating, (Labour) Malcolm Fraser (Liberal) - the three had been in Parliament when aboriginal children were taken - and Bob Hawke (Labour). Mr Keating had commissioned the report Bringing Them Home, which, after 10 years of debate, finally produced the "sorry".
Saying sorry is indeed just the beginning. The healing process must now begin. Mr Rudd announced the establishment of a "war cabinet" to include the Opposition Leader, Brendon Nelson, to:
• implement an effective housing strategy for remote communities within five years;
• seek constitutional recognition of the first Australians;
• close the 17-year gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous people within a generation;
• halve the gap in literacy, numeric and employment;
• halve the infant mortality rate in aboriginal communities within a decade and
• pledge to provide access to early childhood education for every four-year-old indigenous child in remote communities.
Maybe these initiatives by the new Labour government will make Australia a better place - where the indigenous people, our first Australians, can reach out and be part of the many opportunities offered to all.
Saying sorry is the easy part; improving the lives of the aboriginals living in abject poverty takes great leadership and determination.