Two years on from the historic apology to the stolen generation, indigenous protestors and supporters marched across Australia on Saturday.
Groups around the country gathered to mark the occasion - but it's not what the Prime Minister envisioned in 2008, with many of the belief he hasn't followed through with promises he made to Aboriginal Australians.
in Sydney, a Walk against Racism began near Botany Bay and marched to join a rally in Redfern, where a range of spakers and performers took part in proceedings.
Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations was widely praised and seen by many indigenous people as a turning point - the start of a new way forward.
But since then many have been dissapointed by a lack of any further progress.
A History of the 'apology' movement
The demand for a national apology dated back to 1997, following the publication of a federal government-commissioned report, 'Bringing Them Home'.
That report examined the history of the forced removal of Indigenous Australian children from their families over a century from 1869 until 1969, when all legislation allowing the practice was finally repealed.
Its 54 recommendations included a formal national apology.
But while all the states and the Australian Capital Territory responded quickly with public apologies, the former Federal Government, led by John Howard, refused.
Mr Howard argued that his government should not accept responsibility for the acts of earlier generations, sanctioned by the law of the times.
"I have a different attitude from the Labor Party in relation to a formal apology. My view has not changed in relation to that, and it will not change. I don't expect the Labor Party's to change," Mr Rudd said.
I have always held the view, that the best way to help the Indigenous people of this nation, is to give them the greatest possible access to the bounty and good fortune of this nation, and that cannot happen unless they are absorbed into our mainstream".
But the call for an apology did not go away.
First National Sorry Day
The first National Sorry Day was held in 1998 to commemorate the history of the forced removals.
In 1999, Federal Parliament did pass a motion expressing "deep and sincere regret" about the stolen generations, but stopped short of apologising.
The following year about a quarter-of-a-million people joined the "Sorry" Walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The United Nations voiced its concern over the lack of an apology the same year, while a Senate inquiry into the implementation of 'Bringing Them Home's recommendations reiterated the need for one to be made.
And in 2003, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission publicly criticised the Federal Government for its continued failure to say sorry.
Prominent Aboriginal Australian and co-patron of the Stolen Generation Alliance, Lowitja O'Donoghue criticised Mr Howard's attitude.
In her speech to mark the anniversary at Parliament House in Canberra, she slammed the Howard government for ignoring the majority of "Bringing Them Home" report's recommendations.
"Of the 54 recommendations made in the Bringing Them Home Report, 35 have been ignored, that is two thirds," Ms O'Donoghue said.
"The Prime Minister either doesn't get it or he doesn't care, and I'm not sure which is worse.
"There has been a failure of moral authority and ethical leadership in Australia, over the last ten years.
"This country is in a position to be a world leader in human rights and social justice, instead, it is, as Aboriginal people would say, "a shame job".
Yet even after the new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced in late 2007 that he would say sorry, and after the new opposition agreed to support it, some former Howard ministers continued to express reservations.
The then opposition indigenous affairs spokesman, Tony Abbott insisted the phrase "stolen generations" should be left out.
"Some kids were stolen, but some kids were rescued and some kids were helped. So we have to be true to the real history of our country not to a fanciful history of our country".
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