Sorry Business is an important time of mourning that involves responsibilities and obligations to attend funerals and participate in other cultural events, activities or ceremonies with the community.
INTRODUCTION. Sorry business is the Aboriginal English term used by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to describe the mourning period when a family member dies and all responsibilities that follow in accordance with traditional lore and custom.
Every May 26 in Australia, National Sorry Day reminds the colonist-descended people of the nation to remember the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Why?
The Aboriginal Funeral Transport “Sorry Business” initiative provides assistance with transport for isolated and disadvantaged Aboriginal communities throughout NSW including metro Sydney, to attend funerals. Please download the below fact sheets for more information. Alternatively, you can call 1300 361 787.
In some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, hearing recordings, seeing images or the names of deceased persons may cause sadness or distress and in some cases, offend against strongly held cultural prohibitions.
Aboriginal people believe that if the deceased person's name is mentioned, the spirit is called back to this world. Images (film and photographs) or broadcasting the voice of the deceased person may also be against protocol and may cause serious offence.
Aboriginal people honoured and disposed of their dead in many different ways. The dead were usually buried in the ground, sometimes accompanied by possessions such as stone tools or personal ornaments. In some areas, special clothes were made for the deceased.
NSWALC Funeral Grants
Financial assistance for funeral expenses may be available from the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC). Further enquiries should be directed to NSWALC.
Eligibility Summary
To be eligible for up to $1,000 in funding for claimable funeral expenses, the Aboriginal person must be buried within NSW (regardless of if they resided in NSW or not) or be a member of the NSW local Aboriginal Land Council (regardless of if they resided in or are buried in NSW).
The person's body was placed in a sitting position on top of the pyre before being covered by more branches and grasses. Sometimes it faced the east. The cremation pyre could be on open ground, inside a hut, in hollow logs or hollow trees. There appear to be different practices among the tribes around the island.
KSGAC Stolen Generation Flower is often referred to as the National Sorry Day flower. The five-petal Native Cotton, Desert Rose, or Native Hibiscus as we know it, was chosen by members to symbolise the scattering of the Stolen Generations and their resilience to the eugenic policies of Australia.
Write messages and sign the various “sorry books” as a way of showing your commitment towards reconciliation.
Purple has been adopted as the official colour after the native purple hibiscus. The native hibiscus has been approved by the National Stolen Generations Alliance as the official symbol for Sorry Day.
If your Sorry Business involves someone who is not an immediate family or household member then you can't get compassionate leave, but you should still talk to your boss about taking time off work. Your boss might agree to give you paid leave or there might be unpaid types of leave you can get.
It is important for us to ask and know whether you identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, so we can work together to build safer communities and reduce over-representation in the criminal justice system.
There is no set time period for Sorry Business. Ceremonies and mourning periods can vary depending upon community customs, which may take place or continue long after the death of a person.
Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, after adjusting for inflation, the median gross weekly personal income for Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over fell by 5.6%, from $518 to $489 (Figure 1).
The government is also providing $37.5 million to support native title holders to gain greater economic benefit from their land, as well as $21.9 million for leadership initiatives. The government is estimated to provide $16.2 million for Indigenous health spending to the states and territories in 2022-23.
Acknowledgement of Country
Example - “I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the (people) of the (nation). I would like to pay respect to elders past, present and emerging and any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.”
But Aboriginal people are subject to the same social security laws and entitled to no more (and no less) government sponsorship than any other Australian. There has never been a government program that distributed free houses or cars, and Aboriginal students have to pay for university like everyone else.
Does Centrelink Help with Funeral Costs? Yes, Centrelink (also known as Services Australia) has funeral assistance available in Queensland and nationwide. There are several types of bereavement assistance which are dependent on your personal situation and the situation of the person who has died.
Aboriginal Death Customs
Smoking Ceremonies: Certain Aboriginal peoples perform smoking ceremonies at the location that the person died or in houses. During this, relatives may show their grief by cutting their hair or using white pigment on their faces.
Many traditional aboriginal cultures consider death to be very natural. For many aboriginal people, a “good death” is one where they meet death with dignity and composure. Dying this way implies a further experience of an afterlife.
The islands were settled by different seafaring Melanesian cultures such as the Torres Strait Islanders over 2500 years ago, and cultural interactions continued via this route with the Aboriginal people of northeast Australia.