Analysis of Kevin Rudds speech

February 13th of 2008, a speech was held in apology for the indigenous people of
Australia, namely the aboriginals of the country. Presented on the welcome to country
ceremony for the newly elected Labor Government, Hon (Title for The Honourable)
Kevin Rudd, the newly elected prime minister, made the speech for all of the
Australian citizens in broadcasted from the Parliament House.

The speech serves as an important message for countrys citizens, by doing the first
formal apology in regards to the actions that the Australian government has
committed to the original inhabitants of the country. This speech is an important
attempt to properly recognize the aboriginals past sufferings, in contrast to the
previous lack of effort to rightly express regret for the Lost Generation, and the
immeasurable inequality that has affected them.

The rhetorical devices, semantics, and the strong use of pathos combines to a uniform
apologetic formal speech. With the audience being the whole Australian population
and maybe to an extent other great governments, Kevin Rudd succeeds in proposing
respectfully, that all Australians despite of race or culture should be attempting to
move forwards while still take responsibility for the past. With the issue being of such
grave importance and delicacy, the formality and tone of the speech is correctly
justified. The careful inclusion of the listener in the speech is important when he
reflects about moving forward and when saying sorry, while still distancing the past
actions by the excluding the collective we when acknowledging the things that he is
apologizing for, and including them again when actually saying sorry. These apologies
functions as repetitions, stressing and underlining the message and purpose of the
speech. The pathos in the speech is very important when looking at the subject that
the apology is addressing. When expressing regret for lack of respect and decency to a
victim, you need to compensate with exactly what you havent given them. This
manifests in the speech when he for example says And for the indignity and
degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. Or
That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing
cultures in human history.. And the aforementioned inclusion of the we serves to
include more than just the parliament in the apology, but also the rest of the nation,
thus strengthening the pathos and including the receiver in either receiving or giving
the apology. The semantic fields convey the tone of the speech by using words that
circles around the themes of regret and hope. On the themes of regret, he doesnt try
to dampen the morbidity of the past by using words as suffering, degradation, and
profound grief while also using words as reflect and offered in regards to the
contemplation and giving part of the speech. This functions to show empathy and
remorse, and exclaim humility in the expression of sorrow. When addressing the theme
of hope, he uses words as embrace, respect, and equal to set as contesting values
of the future. These words align with the last words of the previous theme in example,
and therefore adds a cohesiveness to the speech. When perceiving the speech, the
medium of recording also makes a difference. When reading the transcript, a lot of the
details of the physical expression is lost, where in video the phonetics and physical
expressions used are still remaining. These include the inclusion of the listener
through eye contact with the camera, and the stress he puts on the words when
underlining them and to emphasize when describing the negative actions that has
been pressed on the aboriginals.

When you look at what the speech is addressing it downright impossible to dismiss
that the aboriginals have been the subject to ludicrous and absurd hardships since the
first settlers began to overtake their land. The fact that it isnt even ten years ago, that
they received a formal apology from the state in spite of the attempts to receive this
hasnt been lacking in determination, comes as a surprise when you consider the scale
of the actions that the previous governments have done. This is of course infinitely
better than no apology at all, like in the slaughter and civilization of the American
aboriginals, that has experienced the same things but to a larger scale, for which no
apology has ever properly been given. Kevin Rudd apologizes for the Stolen
Generation, which is the name given to half caste children who were taken away
from their aboriginal families. This mass kidnapping was reasoned with a belief that
the aboriginal families were unable to care for them, and that the aboriginals would
die out after contact with white people. The conditions were portrayed in the movie
Rabbit-Proof Fence from 2004, that portrays 3 half caste girls that escapes the
government attempt to train them as housemaids for white families.

The consequences of undermining cultures and races has throughout time made the
list of atrocities almost uncountable. One can only wish that this could be one of the
last of similar actions, and that other countries can admit their wrong too so the new
page to turn will include more than Australia.