I offered the original owners nothing for the land I occupy.
I suspect the people before me did the same, and the people before them.
Sorry.
OK....my turn.
Why did I steal their land?
I DIDN'T!
And if you disagree with me then that's fine....you're entitled to your opinion and I have absolutely no intention of engaging in a never-ending debate to defend my viewpoint or to attempt to discredit your's. I see it as a pointless debate which does nothing to help aboriginal people. Far more productive is to focus on their needs and their problems, and discuss ways of helping them out of the hole they're in.
But I can see that you, rederob, have an entirely different viewpoint about the land-stealing issue. You sincerely believe that you stole their land, and in fact you've gone as far as to say sorry.
Now, this raises a couple of interesting points.
First point.....
I think your 'sorry' message is wasted on a forum like this. I doubt if we have many aboriginal forum members who will see your apology and pass it on to their people.
If you truly want to get your message out to the people you're apologising to, then I'm sure you can think of better and more effective ways of doing so.
Suggestions......
* Take your message of apology on to national television.
* Contact the various media outlets, newspapers etc.
* Address aboriginal organisations and tell them how sorry you are.
* Contact someone like Noel Pearson and enlist his help in getting your apology out there to his people.
Second point...
Since you're so convinced that you stole their land, why don't you give back to them the part or parts you believe you stole? Your house - sell it for removal, or if the dwelling is not relocatable, pull it down and sell it bit by bit to one of those businesses that deal in second hand timber and other building materials. Keep the proceeds for yourself, afterall, you didn't steal the house, only the land it's built on.
Now you can either hand over the title deeds to an aboriginal organisation, or you could sell the land and hand over the proceeds instead.
But that mightn't be such a good idea - there's always the risk of the money being squandered and aboriginals getting little benefit from it.
Perhaps a better plan would be to once again consult a responsible person like Noel Pearson, and get his views on the most effective ways your donation could be used to help his people. Maybe you could build a much-needed facility such as a health care centre. Or perhaps you could fund a job-training programme.
You own more than one piece of real estate? No problem.....sell your other holdings as well and use the proceeds for the betterment of aboriginal people.
Make sure your actions get maximum publicity - chances are you'll become quite famous here in Australia and possibly overseas as well. Best of all, other people may be inspired to follow your example. The whole thing could snowball and the spin off for aboriginal people could be enormous.
These are radical steps that would no doubt place you in considerable financial hardship. But that's OK - a small consideration only - the compensating factors will be that you've cleared your conscience by making recompense for the land you believe you stole, and at the same time you'll have the immense satisfaction of knowing you made a significant and very worthwhile contribution towards helping aboriginal people.
Please keep this forum updated on your progress towards liquidating your assets and injecting the bulk of the funds into aboriginal coffers.