Amid tears, cheers and some protests, prime minister Kevin Rudd last week apologised on behalf of the Australian nation to the Stolen Generation, the generations of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their homes by authorities who, at the time, believed they were doing the right thing.

Conspicuous by his absence from Canberra this week while the apology was being made was former prime minister, John Howard, who carefully avoided the "Sorry" word during his time as PM for fear it was unleash a tsunami of compensation claims.

The newspapers this week have been full of letters from those supporting the apology to the Stolen Generation, and those who feel the policy – abandoned years ago - was not their responsibility; “and you don’t apologise for something you didn’t do”.

The most poignant letters have come from the mothers who had their children taken off them, and the children who were taken from their mothers.

One wrote that Aboriginal mothers were “treated like bad girls, not accepted by society, forced into hiding during pregnancies, our babies were whisked out the labour wards without a glimpse and placed in an adoptive home.

“Told by the authorities to get on with our lives, we were given no counselling or compensation.”

And this from a child who was taken from her mother.

”In 1934, when I was a little over a year old, I was taken from my unmarried mother. While she went to work to look after me, she placed me in a day care centre.

“The authorities took me from her because she was 10 shillings in arrears for my care. In 1934 that was a huge amount of money.

"Because she could not care for me I was declared a ward of the state until I was 18. At the age of 15 I learnt I had a younger brother who had also been fostered.

"We didn’t meet again until 1972. By this time we had families of our own. Never too late to embrace one’s family and make up for years denied, we now share our lives with love.

“We have searched through many channels to finds our mother and have had little success because of lack of information.

“I am now 75 years old and because of intervention by “the powers that be” I have never known my birth mother and will never know her, but I still love and shed a tear for her.”

As Elton John once reminded us, sorry seems to be the hardest word.

But now the new Australian prime minister has uttered the word, white and Aboriginal Australia might have a better chance to step forward together.