Canada apologises to aboriginal people

You may already be aware, but the Canadian Government apologised to the Canadian Aboriginal people here yesterday.

It is a momentous occasion, and almost certainly inspired and possibly inevitable after Kevin Rudd’s (Australian PM) apology to the Australian indigenous people.

If you watched Rudd’s apology you almost certainly welled up, or even blubbed. It still gets me. I just watched Stephen Harper (Canada PM) do his apology, and whilst it was an important and momentous moment, it was crap.

And the reason is all about stories. To really learn about the stolen generation, Rudd tells us about Nungala Fejo. Harper tells us facts.

Below are some links, and I recommend watching them all from a personal perspective. But from a professional point of view, I would really recommend all those who need to communicate to create emotional impact – all of you in fundraising – watch at least part I of both speeches. Rudd will move you, Harper won’t.

Kevin Rudd Part I
Kevin Rudd Part II
Kevin Rudd Part III

Stephen Harper Part I
Stephen Harper Part II

They are all You Tube links, so if any fail as people move them about just search in You Tube by the name.

Also, the choice of words. Harper says sorry once (he said ‘we apologise’ a lot), Rudd says sorry eleven times. “Sorry” beats “apologise” easy.

If you decide to use the videos in training / consultancy then you can download You Tube Videos by installing Realplayer, and then when you play a You Tube video it gives you an option to download to your videos/realplayer directory.

Let me know what you think of this Blog.

Sean