Tag Cloud for the Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples by the Australian Parliament

The motion by Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister, in the Parliament at 9.00 am, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 contained the word "Sorry" three times. It contains 344 words, with 173 different words. Here is a concordance index of the words in the speech (on the web, such an index is commonly referred to as a tag cloud). This is an alphabetical list of the number of times each word occurs in the text:

173 types (different words, minus some stop words):

ABORIGINAL (1) ACHIEVEMENT (1) ACKNOWLEDGING (1) AGAIN (1) ALL (3) APOLOGISE (2) APOLOGY (1) APPROACHES (1) AUSTRALIA (3) AUSTRALIANS (4) AUSTRALIA’S (1) BASED (1) BEHIND (1) BETWEEN (1) BLEMISHED (1) BREAKING (1) BROTHERS (1) CAN (1) CHAPTER (2) CHILDREN (1) CLAIM (1) CLOSE (1) COME (1) COMMUNITIES (2) CONFIDENCE (1) CONTINENT (1) CONTINUING (1) COUNTRY (2) CULTURE (1) CULTURES (1) DEGRADATION (1) DESCENDANTS (1) DETERMINATION (1) ECONOMIC (1) EDUCATIONAL (1) EMBRACE (1) EMBRACES (1) ENDURING (1) EQUAL (3) ESPECIALLY (1) EXPECTANCY (1) FAILED (1) FAMILIES (3) FATHERS (1) FELLOW (1) FIRST (1) FORWARD (1) FUTURE (8) GAP (1) GENERATIONS (2) GENERATIONS-THIS (1) GOVERNMENTS (1) GREAT (2) GRIEF (1) HAPPEN (1) HARNESS (1) HAS (1) HAVE (2) HEALING (1) HEART (1) HISTORY (5) HONOUR (1) HUMAN (1) HURT (1) INDIGENOUS (3) INDIGNITY (1) INFLICTED (2) INJUSTICES (1) IS (1) ISLANDER (1) LAND (1) LAWS (1) LAYING (1) LEFT (1) LIES (1) LIFE (1) LOSS (1) MISTREATMENT (2) MOTHERS (1) MOVING (1) MUST (1) MUTUAL (3) NATION (3) NATION’S (1) NEVER (2) NEW (3) NEXT (1) NON-INDIGENOUS (1) NOW (2) OFFERED (1) OLD (1) OLDEST (1) OPPORTUNITIES (1) OPPORTUNITY (1) ORIGINS (1) OUR (3) PAGE (2) PAIN (1) PARLIAMENT (2) PARLIAMENTS (1) PART (1) PARTICULAR (1) PARTNERS (1) PAST (4) PEOPLE (1) PEOPLES (1) POLICIES (1) POSSIBILITY (1) PROBLEMS (1) PROFOUND (1) PROUD (2) RECEIVED (1) REFLECT (2) REMOVAL (1) REQUEST (1) RESOLVE (1) RESOLVES (1) RESOLVING (1) RESPECT (1) RESPECTFULLY (1) RESPONSIBILITY (1) RIGHTING (1) SAY (3) SHAPING (1) SISTERS (1) SO (1) SOLUTIONS (1) SORRY (3) SPIRIT (1) STAKE (1) STEP (1) STOLEN (2) STRAIT (1) SUCCESSIVE (1) SUFFERING (2) TAKE (2) THEIR (7) THESE (2) THOSE (1) THUS (1) TIME (1) TODAY (2) TORRES (1) TRULY (1) TURN (1) UP (1) US (1) WE (13) WERE (1) WHATEVER (1) WHICH (1) WRITTEN (1) WRONGS (1)

This links to the words in context. The concordance was created using the User Text Concordance, by Tom Cobb, Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM).

Sorting these words in descending order of accordance and then taking the first alphabetically for each occurrence, the statement can be reduced to: "We for their history Australians all sorry apologise aboriginal."

The text is from the House of Representatives Hansard:

Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples by the Australian Parliament

That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

From: Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples,

Motion by Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister, House of Representatives Hansard, 13 February 2008

It might be interesting to compare this with the Apology to the Aboriginal People by John Howard, to see how similar they are:

"Good evening. My name is John Howard and I'm speaking to you from Sydney, Australia, host city of the year 2000 Olympic Games. ...

At this important time, and in an atmosphere of international goodwill and national pride, we here in Australia - all of us - would like to make a statement before all nations. Australia, like many countries in the new world, is intensely proud of what it has achieved in the past 200 years. ...

However, these achievements have come at great cost. We have been here for 200 years but before that, there was a people living here. For 40,000 years they lived in a perfect balance with the land. ...

I speak for all Australians in expressing a profound sorrow to the Aboriginal people. I am sorry. We are sorry. Let the world know and understand, that it is with this sorrow, that we as a nation will grow and seek a better, a fairer and a wiser future. Thank you."

John Howard, (the Actor), in the ABC TV comedy "The Games" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Games_%28television%29> July 3, 2000, quoted at <http://parris.josh.com.au/humour/xeno/howard.htm> and video.