Before embarking on the analysis of Keating's speech and Rudd's speeches, there is significant historical context and facts that influenced the Redfern speech and the national apology. 1967; Australians voted overwhelmingly to amend the constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census and allow the Commonwealth to create laws for them. 1975; the Racial Discrimination Act is implemented making racial discrimination unlawful in Australia. 1991; Aboriginal Reconciliation Act put in place, promoting a process of reconciliation between Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the wider Australian community. 1992; Australia's High Court handed down the Mabo decision, a case that overturned the concept of terra nullius. Indigenous Australian's saw the dawn of their civil and political rights in this time, leading to political and legislative change that re-instated their equality within Australian society. Thus, in terms of historical context, the Redfern speech was given at a peculiar time as there was still significant conflict between indigenous and non-indigenous people, but there were promising signs starting to show in the start to reconciliation. .
Keatings speech revolves around the topic of reconciliation and how indigenous people can be assimilated into Australian society. The first of many steps to reconciliation was to acknowledge the following; Aboriginal people are the traditional owners of Australia, Aboriginal cultures have unique relationships to the land, sea and waterways and there is no place for racism or discrimination in Australia. An extract from Keatings Redfern speech "It begins, I think, with the act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the disasters. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination and exclusion.
