Canberra, Australia, February 15, 2008—Candles spell out "sorry" outside the capital's Parliament House on the day the government issued an apology to indigenous Aborigines for decades of racist policies.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized for a legacy of discrimination that took a hundred thousand indigenous children out of their homes from 1910 through the 1970s and placed them in orphanages and internment camps—the so-called Stolen Generation.

"For the pain, suffering, and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants, and for their families left behind, we say sorry," Rudd said to a rapt, tearful audience throughout the country, the Associated Press reported.

However Australian Aborigines are still rallying for financial compensation for the decades of suffering—an option that has already been overruled by the prime minister.

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